The Internet: Endless Resource or Bottomless pit?

I went back to college in my 30s, just as the whole Internet thing was gaining ground. The first few times I had to research papers online, I would enter a search phrase and open the returns one by one to find that half of them were nothing like what I wanted. I would then notice that my search had yielded 80,000 results. It would take a lifetime just to glance at them all! I remember getting so overwhelmed at one point, I had to go to the ladies' room and have a little cry.

Years later I've acquired some online mastery, but once in a while my poor brain still feels assaulted by the sheer enormity of it all. It begins so simply: I have an idea so I sit down at the keyboard intending to write. Then I need clarification on a word or ideas for a more precise word choice, so I turn to an online dictionary or thesaurus. As I do so I get pop-up ads from outfits claiming they can improve my writing or my saleability. I might break down and open one up, and I wind up registering for an writing webinar that starts in an hour. As I sit through the webinar it reminds me that I promised to e-mail a writer friend regarding a critique of her work. I open my e-mail at the close of the webinar and my in-box is full of notices from online writers support groups or critique circles, editors and countless online articles on – of all things – heightening my online presence. At this point I've already spent three hours of my day online.

I've read these online articles and they say things like “write a blog” so I do that. Then I get e-mails offering to help me improve my blog.

And the writing I sat down to do hours ago? The objective that motivated all this? Lost. I ask myself, “Where does it end?” The answer, of course is, there is no end to the Internet.