In the sea of the internet, it is easy to drown. But if you learn the ropes and travel wisely, it can be a dear friend. These are my go-to websites for helpful information, spiritual nourishment and cultural relevance. If instead of wasting hours and hours of time on facebook, we diversified our online portfolio we could use the ubiquity of the internet to actually enrich our lives instead of destroying it!

7. Paste.com

This is where I go for all of my immediate music/arts needs. With quality reviews, features and tons and tons of cool lists, you can’t go to paste and not learn something awesome. At least, it will help you keep up with the endless stream of new music & movies.

6. Christ and Pop Culture

Okay, I am a bit biased here (I write for them…), but even if I didn’t, I would still read the content regularly. CaPC is an online-magazine style blog with a quality staff of diverse and talented writers (I don’t know why they let me hang around!). They avoid a common pitfall of most Christian sites of being too focused on a certain niche or subculture. The broadness and clarity of CaPC set them apart in the blogosphere. And they just switched platforms, moving all of their content to Patheos.com, which is giving CaPC some much needed exposure!

5. The Doghouse Diaries

If you are unfamiliar with this glorious timewaster, give yourself an hour and click the link above. It is the funniest website that I go to. Simply a thrice-weekly cartoon website with silly commentaries on life, relationships and everything in between. The graphs are my personal favorite. So maybe this wont change your life, but it lots and lots of fun!

4. Beer Advocate

Maybe you aren’t a drinker, fair enough… But if you are, this is how you become a *good* drinker. Beer advocate is a comprehensive beer education website, with rankings for just about every beer on earth and tutorials for pouring, purchasing, homebrewing and everything else in beer-world. And if you have a smartphone, it is a good way to avoid buying a dud at the grocery store or a restaurant. So stop drinking Michelob Ultra and get over to BA.

3. The Atlantic

One of, if not the best place to get news, current events, etc. The articles are carefully thought out social commentaries by excellent writers with diverse points of view. Some of the best articles that I have ever read (period) were on the Atlantic. And they treat Christian issues with dignity and respect, unlike many mainstream news publications. An article a day may keep ignorance away.

2. The Gospel Coalition

The Gospel Coalition is like the reformed theology Wal-Mart (minus the brutal business tactics and sad employees), one stop shopping. Not only are some of the best blogs online located at the Gospel Coalition, but the posts, reviews and cultural critiques are usually top notch. Every now and then there will be a post that borders on legalism or enculturation, but for the most part it is just a well stocked fridge of gospel resources.

1. Twitter

This one may seem obvious/ like a timewaster, but twitter (if done right) is one of the best resource gathering tools available today. If you choose your followers carefully (never feel ashamed to ‘unfollow’… your time is valuable) and limit your intake, twitter can be life enriching. Without it, I would be hopelessly behind on the blogs that I read regularly and have no idea when my favorite musicians were releasing new albums. Also, twitter functions as a platform for some of the wisest and godliest men to teach to a mass audience (I’m specifically thinking of: @RickWarren, @NickKristof, @ScottyWardSmith).