The Problem with the Internet

The Internet makes it so easy to "connect" with people, with loved ones, with acquaintances, with true friends, with strangers... Reading about other peoples' lives can be helpful, like when you pick up tips on how to organize your house better, or how to bake an actually good breakfast cookie...It can be hilarious, when someone posts a super-cute story about one of their kids, or relates how their family functions (or doesn't function...) during holidays. Reading about other peoples lives can be frustrating, like when someone posts something that is so against everything you stand for, everything that you believe in, but it's so well-written that you have to keep reading, and then you start to notice that they have a point.
It can also be so sad, to get a peek into another life,...If somebody is upset, or needing help, or emotionally breaking down, then the Internet doesn't truly help you connect. You wouldn't know how to really help someone from just reading their blog. The Internet brings you around the country, around the world, but what you would ordinarily do as a human to help someone doesn't translate through the Internet. You can't really hug someone, or hold their hand. You can't make up a bunch of casseroles with mucho cheese and butter and comfort ingredients. You can't bake them a pie. You can't tell them that it really will come out perfectly once they just keep trooping on and have them believe it because they can't see in your face that you adamantly believe it...
In essence, the Internet allows you to connect, and then completely and utterly paralyzes you during times of crisis and all you can do is hope, hope, hope, that the person at the other computer is going to come through their stressful time as quickly and as securely as possible. You've got to trust and believe that they've got enough people.