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In Karl Marx's day, religion was the opium of the masses, then it was television, and now, of course, the internet is the "social anesthesia that distracts people from the stress of unemployment," as the Wall Street Journal rather poetically puts it. Spending all day online playing games, posting on forums, and Facebooking is proving the most popular way of whiling away the long empty hours that would otherwise be spent panicking about the fact you may never work again/marveling at Maury Povich's tireless efforts to identify babies' daddies, much to the delight of many website owners who are seeing major surges in traffic.

Games sites and online gambling sites in particular are benefiting from the jobless: Both categories saw a nearly 30 per cent jump in visitors during the last quarter. One Seattle-based company, Big Fish Games—where you can play games like Jetsetter, "a first-hand look into the hustle and bustle of the gossip-crazed world of the uncommonly important," no less—currently has more than thirty job openings. You know, if things get really desperate or if Twittering about your burnt toast ever inexplicably loses its allure.

Out of Office: Job Loss in the Age of Blogs and Twitter [WSJ]