When the personal computer first became a feasible purchase for mainstream consumers there was little choice in terms of form factor; you could either have bulky gray box number one or bulky gray box number two. And that was it. Then along came the laptop, which gave consumers a viable alternative. The last few years have seen two new alternatives enter stage right: the tablet and the smartphone.

It’s an unfortunate truth that the best video games aren’t always the ones which make money. Essentially there is little correlation between critical reception and commercial success. The same goes for movies and music as well, though sites such as Metacritic have helped mainstream consumers make informed decisions in the entertainment field. This means some of the best games ever released haven’t generated sequels, or, if they have, not for a long time.

Video games are now commonplace, having grown from being the domain of the geekiest kids in the ’70s and ’80s to mainstream fare in the ’90s and ’00s. In the ’10s you can play video games on dedicated consoles, set-top boxes, computers, tablets, smartphones, and many more devices I’ve probably forgotten to list. They’re here, and they’re here to stay, and yet the debate over whether they’re a force for good or evil is still ongoing.

Video sharing is not a new phenomenon, with YouTube having been with us since 2005, amazingly. There are also a host of alternatives to YouTube, but the Google-owned service must be considered the daddy of them all. However, there’s a newcomer on the scene, one which is gaining a lot of attention thanks to both its ease of use and severe limit on the length of videos. I am, of course, talking about Vine, which you may well have heard of already.

The Web has opened up lines of communication that were previously closed for the vast majority of the world. Anyone with an Internet connection can now head online and talk to someone on the other side of the world using any one of a range of different services. Social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ are the obvious options. There is unfortunately a tendency to abuse these new lines of communication.

Adult Swim is an American cable television network aimed primarily at adults with infantile senses of humor. This toilet humor with a slightly risqué edge has also found its way into the games Adult Swim offers for free on its website. These games don’t contain anything vile or absolutely unforgivable, but they will be slightly offensive to some. This is both a warning and a promise, depending on your level of sensitivity.

Video games have now been with us for more than 40 years, and in that time they’ve evolved from simple concepts brought forth by muddy visuals (such as the Atari classics) to complex and involving gameplay made real by detailed visuals (such as the best games of 2012). In recent years they’ve also grown from niche hobby to mainstream fodder, especially with the emergence of casual games, and consequently casual gamers.

As a casual gamer I rarely buy brand new games. The number I’ve ever bought on launch day can be counted on one hand, though GTA V will be added to that short list soon. I usually buy used games weeks, months, or even years after a title is released. As is my right. Or is it? The used games market is under increasing threat, to the point that it may cease to exist over the next few years.

The Web is a huge collection of disparate pages which continue to expand and multiply. The old adage that you can find a page dedicated to any and all subjects on the Web (no matter how niche they may be) is based very much in reality. If you don’t believe me, go to Google (or Bing, or DuckDuckGo) and type in a random word or phrase. There’s a high probability you’ll get a result, and you’ll probably get thousands of results.

I’m an avid reader, getting through at least one book a week. I often have several on the go at once – usually a novel, a reference book, and an autobiography – which are consumed as and when the opportunity arises. I realized long ago that there are far more books out there than I could ever read in my lifetime, with hundreds of thousands more published each and every year. This means choosing what to read is a big decision.

I must admit I’m a little addicted to the Web. Not only is it my place of work, it’s where I often choose to hang out during any downtime. I search for random things on Google, I learn new things on Wikipedia, I watch videos on YouTube, talk to people on Facebook and Twitter, buy crap on eBay, and consume awesomeness via Reddit. The seven websites mentioned above comprise the list of essential websites I recently suggested keep the Web turning.

Believe it or not this is my day job. I get paid to produce content for the Web, writing mostly about technology in all its forms. This means my working day consists of two things – reading and writing. The reading part is easy. I just head online and consume information, some destined to be used for specific articles, more to act as background fodder lurking away in my subconscious to be pulled out when needed. But the writing, well, that’s a little tougher.

No one actively wants to go to prison, and those of us who are law-abiding citizens do our utmost to stay away from them. However, it’s an interesting exercise to imagine yourself locked up away from the rest of society, and imagine what you’d miss the most. Friends and family would top the list for most people, but after that it comes down to what you derive pleasure from. For many people technology is a source of entertainment.

There’s been a sudden and unexpected lurch from hardcore games to casual games over the last few years, with the deadly combination of smartphones and social networking sites meaning the smallest, seemingly least impressive games have found massive audiences. Take Angry Birds, for example, which is a simple concept featuring visuals a three-year-old could replicate, and yet it’s more popular than Call Of Duty.

Keeping up with the news of the day, whether it be local, national, or international, is important. It’s never good to bury your head in the sand, unaware of what is happening around you. However, sometimes the news is too damn depressing, to the point that taking too much of it to heart could potentially leave you with little hope for the future of humanity. It’s at this point that an injection of humor is needed, preferably straight into your brain.