So around 11pm last night, I fell into a trap that I encounter at least once a month. I logged on to the internet with simple intentions (in this case, I was looking for a David Gray video) and then, three hours later, I look at the clock and wonder where the time went.

There are probably much more productive things to do with my time, such as sleeping, than watching third-rate cover versions of songs performed in a dorm room but sometimes I can’t help but click on some of YouTube’s “Suggestions” only to travel down that never-ending path of tangentially related videos. You know what it’s like: you find music videos from the artist then you find live performances which have too much crowd noise so you find a better recording after which you find an acoustic cover…it never seems to end!

The thing is, when I do go on one of these multiple-hour web binges, I never go scouring the web from topic to topic. Instead, I usually spend hours looking at essentially the same thing. I wonder if a website’s suggestions/related items feeds into my OCD tendencies? In the past, I’ve also been guilty of losing track of time while:

• Browsing Flickr: I’ll see a contact’s recent upload and check it out and then I’ll see what groups the user put the picture in and then it’s all over. I start looking at group submissions and find all of these random groups and discover new photographers.
• Facebook Hunting: Sometimes I’ll get inspired and try to remember as many people from my past, like high school, and then I can spend hours trying to find them on Facebook. Don’t tell me “Facebook stalking” isn’t one of your pastimes!
• Cleaning iTunes: I do this so rarely that when I do commit to doing it, it’s a huge ordeal. I need to make sure every song has cover art, every title is capitalized appropriately and I even check that the volume levels are equal. I can’t explain the level of satisfaction I get once I’m done!

This post is part confession but hopefully also the start of a support group for people who find themselves doing the same thing. I can’t be alone in this — What sort of sites do you get trapped in when you’re online?