Surfing the web? Uh, what’s that?

When’s the last time you surfed the web? (OK, when’s the last time you even heard that term?) My guess is that it’s been a long while, and that you’re now fidgeting on Facebook or whatever the operative phrase might be for wasting time online.

I know I’ve blogged about the effect Facebook has had on blogging – it’s generally stifled blogging except for those bloggers who blog about the effect Facebook has had on their blogging – but I’ve also decided that it’s probably responsible for fewer people being more adventurous in their exploration of the web. Whether this is factually supported is not the point, because I’m doing less web surfing, and I’m sure I represent the overall potential web surfing audience.

Seriously, though, do you spend time anymore simply following random links on random sites to see where they lead? It’s been a few years since I’ve done that, and I believe a big reason is that blogs are dying out…and blogs were the best source of links to new and unusual websites.

I’m sure that in terms of absolute numbers there are still a gazillion quirky, intriguing, cutting-edge and/or insightful websites being maintained by people with no other agenda than investing time and effort in something they love. But we’ve settled into a comfortable routine via Facebook and it’s hard to make the time or summon the effort to go looking for those sites. I suspect that the collective “we” spends 90%+ of our online time on an aggregate of about a hundred or so news, sports, or social media websites.

I’m part of the problem (if, indeed, this can be termed a problem), because I rarely post links to other sites anymore. I’m not sure why that is or what I should do about it, but as soon as I check my Wall, I’ll give it some more thought and get back to you.