I can really identify with the author of the article. I used to be able to successfully distract myself from 'real work' a lot years ago, but lately, most of the internet is just plain boring to me, or even extremely hostile.

I used to hang around several guitar forums which took up a TON of time, but I closed my account on all of them years ago when hostility and snarkiness accelerated to dizzying highs. It just stopped being a fun hangout. Twitter and most social media is now just a cesspool of antagonism. Most interesting news articles are now behind paywalls or layered under a ton of ads.

The only thing that takes up some of my online time now is watching chess game analytics on Youtube - but I NEVER scroll down to the comments on Youtube any more because I value my sanity.

Other than that, I find that I spend those minutes between long downloads/uploads or compile time actually turning around in my home office and picking up a real guitar and playing for a few minutes. I am starting to enjoy the offline tools around me nowadays far more than online distractions.