I'm beginning to feel like...

I've exhausted the perimeter of the internet.

I remember the internet used to seem like such a big place. There were a plethora of websites on any barrage of topics, and you were always bound to run into sites you hadn't seen before.

I have zero statistics or scientific data to back any of this up, but it seems like when I get on the internet nowadays (which is everyday, since I work for an e-business), my surfing and traffic can basically be contained to about the same 10 websites. One would think that with all the advancements in technology and how the internet has supposedly grown, the amount of choices would have quintupled. But for some reason, when I sit down in front of the internet now, I find myself literally out of ideas of where to go.

Perhaps my range of interests is too narrow. But I can remember a time when I would eat up far too much of a day absorbing information online. Now, to compensate for being stuck behind this computer for 8 hours a day, I'm DYING to waste time absorbing information. The best way to do this is to communicate with real people via AIM or GChat, given the place I work it is both refreshing and appreciated to be able to conversate w/ friends (who don't speak Yiddish).

But people have lives and can't always sit and chat, so I find myself browsing the same sites that just aren't updates as frequently anymore, bored shitless on the internet.

If I want to catch the latest hip-hop news, I go to HipHopGame, AllHipHop or RapReviews.com. If I want to read articles on whatever random topic, I go to Wikipedia (thank God for Wikipedia). If I want to peep videos, I go to YouTube. If I want to scout the net for potential gigs or whore my music, I go to Craigslist. If I want to whore my music or holler at trim, I go to MySpace. If I want to holler at trim, I go to Facebook. If I want the latest wrestling news...eh, I gave up on the IWC a long time ago. Occasionally I remember to read the Onion, but they only update once a week and we have the print version for free here in NYC anyway.

I peep CNN or Drudge Report for news too, but really that shit has gotten so mundane and repetetive I barely even check for it lately: war in Iraq, election, America's stupid, The Eminent End.

Now granted, we've covered the majority of my passions: Music, Hip-Hop, Girls, educating myself w/ useless information, humor, wrestling, the news, and promoting myself. So since the internet should have so many more possibilities, why does it seem so desolate? Every "music business authority" rants about how the internet is SO FULL of places to promote yourself and network with important people. Now goddamnit, I've been using the internet for 10 years now, I have a pretty good idea how to surf - why is almost every website (aside from the big players like MySpace, Craigslist, etc. who have high traffic for other reasons) a ghost town? And plus MySpace, Craigslist, etc is so oversaturated with crap anyway...eh, you get the picture.

I can remember a time when you would search for a topic, and you'd get pages of REAL results. Now when you search a topic, you're lucky to get a few real results, instead you have to wade through 500 pages of sponsored ads, dead links, torrent results, and bait-and-switch bullshit.

Regardless, I feel like that commercial from a few years back where the guy officially reached The End of the internet. How did a barrage of mom-and-pop websites get swallowed up by a group of giants, who appear to have gotten lazy with their information distribution? Maybe it's just me. Plus with the horrid misuse of the internet that Ron enlightened us on the other day...I'm just wondering when did the internet run out of steam? And why do I sit in front of this computer with nowhere to go anymore?