KENNETH GOLDSMITH is a poet and author of ten books, including Seven American Deaths and 
Disasters (2013) and Uncreative Writing: Managing Language in the Digital Age (2013).He is the 
founding editor of UbuWeb, an online archive, and senior editor of PennSound, a website for 
digital poetry recordings based at the University of Pennsylvania, where he teaches writing.In reality it's a befuddling mix of the stupid and the sublime, a shattered, 
contradictory, and fragmented medium.The way Internet pundits tell it, you'd think we stare for three hours at clickbait--those articles 
with hypersensational headlines--the way we once sat down and watched three hours of 
cartoons on Saturday morning TV. But most of us don't do any one thing on the Internet.Am I wasting time if I look up the latest presidential polling numbers, but not 
if I'm communicating with an old friend on Facebook?Our time spent in front of 
the computer is a mixed time, a time that reflects our desires--as opposed to the time spent 
sitting in front of the television where we were fed shows we didn't necessarily enjoy.This 
essay, first published on August 12, 2016, for the Los Angeles Times, is from his book Wasting 
Time on the Internet (2016).The notion that the Internet is bad for you seems premised on the idea that the Internet is one 
thing--a monolith.Internet detractors seem to miss this simple fact, 
which is why so many of their criticisms disintegrate under observation.Am I wasting time if I watch cat videos, but not if I read a magazine story about the 
Iran nuclear deal?When I click around news sites, am I 
wasting time because I should be working instead?