Catching Up

I was talking to my friend Alec last night and he mentioned that he was "catching up with the internet".

I really think that's the perfect phrase. When ever I sit down with a computer, I always feel like I'm behind. I have to check my multiple emails, scan my blog feed for new posts, check out the photos I've been tagged in on Facebook, cover my NYT headline feed, feed my virtual pets that I've had since I was in 5th grade(if I remember, which I most often don't), check my online Scrabble games, etc.

My cousin holds all this information in his pocket, because he has a ipod touch. Most people in this day and age pay to have smart phones constantly on the alert. However, even those people are not ever 'caught up'.

I downloaded the information from my Facebook account last night in an attempt to get copies of the photos I'd been tagged in (there are over 400). Although the photos didn't work the way I would have liked, I did get a very interesting print out of ALL the wall posts/status updates that have ever been on my Facebook. Four years worth. And I was struck by how much is out there.

It is often chilling to consider the information on the internet, and easy to vow that you will be more careful, etc, but I think that we all will continue to fall into the trap of trying to catch up. When life seems to occur on the internet, you want to be there too, and so we are all constantly "catching up".