What do you use the Net for?

@RANDOM

Many people spend up to 10 hours a day online, but what they're doing is normal to the point of boring. Some extend their social networks or keep them maintained through sites like Facebook and Orkut.

The single most time-consuming activity for those who work in corporate offices is responding to email. Many use the Net as their "extra brain" we Google as we're chatting on the phone, so if someone mentions "Bombay weather" or "Obama drama", many of us automatically type it in to Google search as we talk.

Over the last few months, I kept a log of what I surfed and found the results at odds with what I thought I did online. I do a lot more reading online than I had imagined, and get most of my news online rather than on the TV. I check far too much email. I "play" less, but I use social networks more. Keeping in mind that everyone's different, I looked at a few things that you can and can't do online.

1) Learn a skill: A rough-and-ready poll among friends revealed that many use the Net to learn something we've often wanted to do, but hadn't got around to doing in meatspace. I'm using online sites to learn to read sheet music, because there are very few good piano books available in India, and because I'm too nervous to go to a piano teacher. Another friend told me how she'd used the Net to find the right exercise routine for her, browsing Pilates, yoga and aerobics sites before she settled on a blend of Pilates and using the elliptical trainer. Yet another friend says he used the Net to pick up running and meditation basics before shifting offline to find trainers/centres.

2) Keep in touch with your industry: This is both easy and hard to do in India. Sites like naukri.com and monster.com can keep you in touch with trends in your industry