Vortex of dissipation

From Wiki Gonzalez

vor·tex ( P ) Pronunciation Key (vôrtks) n. pl. vor·tex·es or vor·ti·ces (-t-sz) A place or situation regarded as drawing into its center all that surrounds it: “As happened with so many theater actors, he was swept up in the vortex of Hollywood” (New York Times).

dis·si·pa·tion ( P ) Pronunciation Key (ds-pshn) n. Wasteful expenditure or consumption. Dissolute indulgence in sensual pleasure; intemperance. An amusement; a diversion.

A vortex of dissipation is the condition of letting yourself sink into a life of meaningless diversion. Such as spending hours a day at a baseball message board...

The phrase is a chapter title in Amanda Foreman's Georgiana: Duchess of Devonshire, which the poster who calls himself by that name was reading at the time of the new registration.

It was also used by Jane Austen as an example of a cliche to avoid:

Jane Austen wrote to a literary niece: "I wish you would not let him ‘plunge into a vortex of dissipation.’ I do not object to the thing, but I cannot bear the expression; it is such thorough novel slang; and so old that I dare say Adam met with it in the first novel he opened."