keeping us online

i would always get that quizzical look with a raised eyebrow and a slight look back on the pc screen when my mom passes by me while i am glued to the pc screen. i know she would never understand how my siblings and i could be glued to the pc for hours since her online experience would only consist of checking emails and replying to them and that's about once a month or when she gets an urgent text from one of her friends on why she hasn't replied to any of their emails yet.

so what does keep us youngsters online? in my personal online routine instant messaging is first whether or not i would want to talk to someone or not i log onto my yahoo messenger and check who among my friends are online. then of course i would get pop up messages of how many emails i have received so then i automatically click on it and check my emails, delete spam, reply to some, forward chain mails, and write some friends whom i might just think of sending something more personal. if in any of my email newsletters send something interesting i would click on the links and check it, or if i'm in the mood i would click on the any of the new york times' news article for some dose of much needed current events. of course i do own own five email addresses and registered to receive a whole lot of newsletters and spam. it's a bit sad to realize that no matter how many people are in my online addressbook, the only thing closest to being personal getting sent or received is a forwarded email. on some other window i would also be logged onto friendster or flixster or some other other social networking site that i know i have registered but i have to admit its mostly friendster everyday. i would be online also sharing my thoughts and my wit on my online community message board, girltalk. then there's blogging, i have two blogsites and i know i haven't been the most conscientious blogger lately but i do check my blogsites daily contemplating on whether i should write what's on top of my head or wait for something more profound to write. after my online ritual i would simpy check out sites that i have read about or read someone elses blog from friends' blog to the a-list bloggers that seems to be the talk of town. occassionally i would take online personality tests or iq tests claiming to be phd certified from tickle.com and getting tickled in the process after reading the result that i am a superior human being, well that is according to tickle.com results of course.

the simple act of being online is work in itself, a daily ritual, a way to communicate, and a way to be entertained. it's all out there in world wide web. the idea of being connected in one package. it could take a minute or the whole day to be online because of the need to be connected. while the internet has shrunk the world for all of us communication wise, we stay online longer because we want to connect more, the innate human need to personally interact could never be satiated by our newest means of connection. when we do go out we don't make connections with our world or the other people around us, like maybe during the time of our parents when they made real connection, beacause we are too absorbed to ourselves so we go back to our little cocoon and try to connect again in a different way wanting more, so we stay online.