What would you think of a normal or even above "normal" intelligent person living next door to the Library of Congress and, instead of setting foot inside to actually study/learn something, he/she reads the gossip columns, watches TV, and plays video games all the time? I would call it a waste of a good mind. That is an analogy that I could to use to describe a large majority of internet users these days.
We have the largest library/reference library in the world at our fingertips and most people fail to take advantage of it to feed their minds things that they choose to explore instead of passively allowing huge media companies to "program" their minds. The worst part is that most topics anyone can study are free, inexpensive or by donation. Kahn Academy, for example offers courses for free (or donation) to study almost any topic--most are at a college level.
I am less structured in my approach to studying than Kahn Academy because I am an artist-type and have too many interests, but when I need to understand something in a hurry (overview of quantum theory, or chemistry, or spherical geometry, for instance) I would go to Kahn Academy. I use YouTube to explore and study a lot of things that interest me.
Ok I told you that I have a lot of interests that I want to understand better/become more proficient in and maybe write about; here are a few of them: (not necessarily in order of importance).
Beer-making, Nicola Tesla, free energy devices, the Bible (especially the Tanach, "Old Testament"), Quantum Physics, Mars and the breakaway civilization, patterns I see repeating ancient history, Artificial Intelligence, and good recipes to name a few of the topics that I may write about. All of these topics can be explored on the internet and that is where I became interested in most of them.
More later.......
Jon<><