The internet ruins everything.

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, almost my entire life is spent online. Between work, communicating, watching television, paying bills, or selling my handmade items, I’d guestimate that 95% of my awake time is spent online. (I even wrote most of this post from a Metro train and I saved each time I hit a station with cell reception.)

Maybe it’s just my obsessive hyperconnectedness that causes me to check Twitter, Facebook and email several times an hour or maybe it’s a nervous tic I’m developing. Last night, I actually plotted how I could gain the “Brooklyn 4 Life” Foursquare badge (requires 25 separate check-ins at various Brooklyn locations) in two days’ time.

I’m beginning to think the Internet, and various technologies, are ruining everything good and wholesome about life.

Here are a few reasons:

• The Internet easily turns you into a stalker. No one can claim innocence here. Everyone has a little bit of stalker in them and social media encourages it. Just like everything in life, it’s okay in moderation, right? But, where’s that line between finding out your crush’s favorite band and guessing how many people he’s dated in the past 6 months by checking his facebook wall/status updates?
• The Internet makes people want to share things instantly — even live events. Maybe I’m a sucker, but I’m 24 years old and I still love surprises. Live tweeting might be one of the worst “inventions” to come out of social media, yet, again, I’ve done it before. [I'm more likely to live tweet my visit to my favorite cupcake store or cooking dinner, but I still do it.] Not only does it ruin the feeds of every person following you, but you’re not saying anything original about what’s going on.

  Long before the days of Tivo, Twitter, and Hulu, you either caught your favorite show live or you didn’t see it at all. Missing an episode of Friends or Seinfeld meant you’d have to hope it shows up in re-runs over the summer. Websites dedicated to uncovering the mysteries of the smoke monster/The Man In Black wouldn’t have existed. Now, if you’re not home at 9pm on Tuesdays, yet you still want to check your Facebook or Twitter feeds, you’re almost guaranteed to have the entire episode of Lost spoiled for you.

• The Internet ruins past-times. Again, something I’m guilty of. I used to read and write all the time, now I struggle to open a book or read something other than the front page of CNN.com or Entertainment Weekly. I long for the feeling of reading a good book, but I just don’t. Instead of bringing a book along for my morning commute, I refresh my TweetDeck before I get on Metro and read updates I missed from the night before.
• The Internet wants me to connect to people and things with whom I don’t want to be connected. While I appreciate the new “community” pages on Facebook, I find the sharing options to be incredibly annoying. I’m not an organized person, but I keep my internet browsing very separated. Everyone I know on Facebook doesn’t need to know what I’m reading on CNN.com (or the embarrassing stations I listen to on Pandora).

What are some things the internet ruins for you?