by Dawn Hawkins

Created on: March 10, 2009   Last Updated: December 26, 2011

We spend hours working and playing on our computers. This is a pastime that stretches across the globe. Many of those hours spent on the internet are productive. It gets things done a lot faster than the days of old. Then there are the things that are a little less productive. Those are the fun things that we do and could be construed as wasted time.

Putting the two things side by side to have a closer inspection might make us realize how much of our time is wasted surfing the internet. You might feel a need to change things up a little bit so that you aren't missing out on the things in real life that need to get done.

Here is a comparison of several points that will help you realize what wasted time vs. productive time on the internet really is:

1. Chatting- Chatting in an online community is fun. You can talk to people from around the world and it doesn't cost you a dime extra. The even better part is, you can talk for as long as you want. Chatting could also be considered business. There are many meetings that take place over the internet.

Both of these options have great things about them. I don't think that it is wasting time to get to know people from other cultures and backgrounds. It is also not a waste of time to have a business meeting this way. It can actually save a lot of time and travel expenses.

These only become wasteful if you become addicted to it. This means that all you do is sit at your computer chatting all day with people you never met. It's all in who you are talking to as to whether or not it is a waste of time or productive.

2. Gaming- People love to play games on the internet. This is targeted for the more youthful crowd. Games have a lot of value in learning. They teach us things and we don't even know it. If gaming is done on a limited basis, it can be productive. It is when it becomes necessary for us to play those games on a constant basis that causes us to be unproductive in learning anything new from it.

3. Email- Email is great for quickly getting information back and forth between people. It allows us to file share and people don't have to wait for days to receive it. It becomes wasteful when you have to sift through all the spam to get to the real mail. One other time waster when it comes to emails are those cute little things your friends send you. Some are cool, others are just a pain and it wastes your time sifting through them.

4. Search Engines- Search engines are a very productive way to find the information that you

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