I do (if the topic, is of general interest to me), but only really to look for stuff I don't know about. I quite enjoyed the Desert Island thread we had, for just that reason. I found a lot of new-to-me music in there that I would never have heard of, otherwise.

The other day, I was looking at an article about "the top 15 cool libraries in the world" (or something like that). I don't care about the rankings, but the unique architecture presented in the list was definitely interesting, and inspirational. I wish the designers of our city library had seen the list...

Now, you want waste of time, try arguing cell-phone sales and market share statistics on the internet.