I'm a lock-in person, naturally. I get focused on my own work and progress and don't pay much attention to what other people are doing. I get days-behind on my social media feeds sometimes and miss news posted by people I know both online and off.

I'd much rather be the one making and announcing the news then the one reading it. Maybe that makes me selfish, that I'd rather make my own news than celebrate yours. Yeah, it probably does. Oh well.

"I'd much rather be the one making and announcing the news then the one reading it." 

But, social media and looking around at what you're doing does serve one useful purpose for me: when I see someone doing something big, something I wish was MY news and not theirs, I get envious.

Envious - in a healthy way, I think. I use my envy -- damn, that's a good move he made. She's making it happen! -- to get more focused and drive myself.

Ask Yourself A Better Question: Change Your Questions, Change Your Thoughts, Change Your Life

Here are some other ways you can use the new version of people-watching - the internet - to your advantage, in addition to the envy.

Steal ideas. I'm damn good at coming up with ideas - I write down 10 of my own daily -  I am also a professional thief. I steal any good idea I see or hear about and utilize it. Ideas have no owners. If you're going to be looking around, look with a Mindset of finding something you can take and make use of.

Ideas have no owners." 

Remind yourself of what you don't want. There's a lot of good stuff online, hence my stealing top above, but there's also a lot of garbage out there. Look around and see not only what you can use, but what you want to stay away from. I'm sure you'll find plenty of examples.

"Remind yourself of what you don't want." 

Sharpen your skill of observation. Depending on how you look at it, social offers the best or worst of humankind: you can see, Read and hear everything someone else is doing, eating or thinking. Hence the time-wasting aspect of it. But, to the trained eye, so many people sharing so much tells you a lot about both them as people, and people in general. Pay attention to what's out there, and also what's not out there.

Opportunism is the ability to see some use, advantage or opportunity in everything presented to you. If everyone is going to be sharing their lives, meals, vacations and thoughts with everyone else, grab the opportunity out of it and leave the rest.