We all have one. Don’t try to deny it. It’s that website you click on when you think your boss isn’t watching … when you need a mental break from that report you’re development. It’s that site where your book is gathering reviews or your app is generating sales or your best friend just wrote a post and you’re 100% sure it’s about you but you’ll be damned if you ask.

Maybe it’s news. Weather. Sports. Crocheting tips.

It’s there.

You know it, too.

How do I know?

Of course I have mine.

I have a whole list of them in fact.

Go ahead and roll your eyes. I do it to myself. But the more I look at it, the more I see it’s the same series of sites … social stuff first, books second, news headlines to keep up with current events. Do I read everything on all the pages?

Never. I skim headlines, posts, fees, whatever it is to get a general feel or sense for what’s going on.

I might spend 10 seconds or 10 minutes on the site and I click off … my addiction need ‘met’.

Only to have it rear its head again later. I can be in the middle of a project – thinking about my work, my writing, my kids play and a desire to know what’s going on … with my friends, my family or even just the world will over take.

One click and I’m back.

Now, I will say, the busier I get, the less frequently I visit these sites … but if I’m bored, I could spend hours going from one to the other, refreshing 8000 times wondering if something new is going to be posted.

Thinking about it logically … this is all kinda stupid. 🙂 I mean, seriously? It’s like the need for a cigarette and while physically healthier, I’m not sure it’s mental healthier.

At least I’m not spending my day clicking on porn sites. 😉 (No, really, I’m not).

I think I have a solution for my problem and this is where my question comes in. I need more sites to ‘love to go to’ so that I have so many I ‘love’ that I don’t have time to visit them all. You see … when I have too many interests, they all take a back seat, so this is my personal reverse psychology on myself.

Think it’ll work?

Yeah … me neither.

But hey … at least we can be in each others’ company as we visit site after site.

So … want to know my biggest web habits?

• Goodreads (duh)
• Twitter via TweeDeck
• Facebook (most addicted for long-term consumption)
• Emotion Thesaurus (Yes, seriously)
• My own website statistics (sounds dumb, but I love seeing how many people visit and from where they come – remember, I’m a nerd)
• J Taylor Publishing (as if something would be new there, too)
• Amazon (obvious reasons)
• Fox News (Gotta skim headlines)
• WRAL.com (Gotta skim local headlines)

And lately, these sites have come into my ‘Top sites’ list (as developed by my browser from the sites I visit way too often:

• Boxers or Briefs
• Scribophile

I’ve visited 1000s of websites but these are ones I stick to. I think because they give me the most information fast. But hey … what can I do? And no, ‘turning off the Internet’ is not an option.

How about you?

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