Yikes! Be careful. It'll addict you in seconds.

Mindless junk, or MJ, is ubiquitous. TV is full of it. The Internet is loaded with it.

And it's powerful. Before you know it you're hooked, and an hour (or four) is lost forever.

I'm not saying it's not entertaining. It is. That's the problem. If MJ was less interesting, it wouldn't be so dang enticing.

There I was minding my own business when this horrible, interesting, creepily entertaining television show came on. "Maximum Exposure — When People Attack" is an insult to human intelligence. I can't believe that anyone would be dumb enough to make it. Or watch it.

But there I was, watching grown adults lose their tempers and beat on each other over parking spaces or some other righteous cause.

After 15 minutes of insanity, I came to my senses, clicked it off and questioned my taste and intelligence. What was I doing?

Probably what a lot of us catch ourselves doing — blowing time watching nothing.

My students do it. They waste way too many hours on MJ.

Yet they may end up being better at resisting it than we of the three-channel generation are.

When I was growing up in the '60s, the main choices were ABC, NBC and CBS. I remember struggling to find a few fuzzy UHF stations and feeling proud when I did.

So now, when YouTube offers infinite choices and possibilities, it's a tempting new world.

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Serious self-discipline is required to keep ourselves from sinking into the MJ pit.

On the other hand, it's simpler than ever to immerse ourselves in excellence.

There's an amazing amount of high-quality stuff out there. So much so, that there is no excuse for wasting time with MJ.

Finding the best takes only modest effort and thoughtful discernment. The rewards are great: education, inspiration, joy and, certainly, mood enhancement.

So don't settle. Time is the ultimate opportunity cost. When you have a couple of hours to watch a movie, watch one that could change your life.

Of the thousands and thousands of Hollywood movies made, only 80 have won the Academy Award for best picture. How many have you seen? Want to expand your perspective a little? Google "25 Must See Bollywood Movies."

Check out a remarkable site called listsofbests.com. One awe-inspiring list you'll find there is "Pulitzer Prize winning books written by Nobel Prize winning authors." Example: Toni Morrison's "Beloved."

Looking for some high-quality music? Lists of bests includes all the "Grammy Albums of the Year." 1968? "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band." 2008? Herbie Hancock's "River: the Joni Letters."

Read about the lives of Nobel Prize winners. I recommend studying Muhammad Yunus, the 2006 winner for his tireless promotion of microcredit.

Take the time to YouTube "Greatest Speeches of All Time." JFK's moon speech is there. So is Will Ferrell's 2003 Harvard commencement speech.

Trust me. It's all good.

Contact Jaime Richards at jrichards2517@hotmail.com.