The Internet: Poison or Panacea?

This isn't even true!

There are plenty of reasons to hate the Internet -- fake news, photoshopped images and completely manufactured stories to name but a few -- but surely the biggest one is its capacity to erode one's self-esteem. And in case I am being too presumptuous, I'll change that to "erode my self-esteem."

Before the arrival of the Internet, I was quite happy with myself. Of course, I was a lot younger and had more to be happy about back then, since it came along in 1991 with the introduction of the World Wide Web, and really took off by the mid-90s when I was about 50 years old, still relatively young and pretty, very healthy, pre-heart attack and with a young child at home I adored who thought I was God's Gift.

None of those things are true anymore, which likely and quite largely may contribute to my diminished self-esteem. Still, I can't help but wonder how I would feel about myself if I didn't constantly read about, hear about and see proof of in photos and videos how others have it so much better than I do. 

I tell myself to look away, don't turn on my computer, don't read about the lives of strangers. But I never listen, and in fact make it worse daily by ingesting even more of it. What's got me down today is a chance encounter with an online story about an Australian woman named Turia Pitt who was burned in a fire in 2011, with 65% of her face and body permanently disfigured and seven fingers amputated, who suffered two years of hell in a hospital, enduring 200 surgeries, and yet has lived a better, more fulfilling and happier life than I ever have by turning her tragedy into a fulfilling career path, publishing three books and running in races and giving TED talks, all with a smile. (Google her.)   

The flip side is that reading about others who have overcome great adversity can and should be inspiring. It hasn't done that for me, so I stick my head in the sand like an ostrich and try not to think about it. (BTW, ostriches do not really do that to avoid hard truths; instead it has to do with digging holes for nesting, a fact I learned on the very same Internet.)

Tired of ingesting things that bum me out, I'm starting an Internet diet, staying offline except for posting this blog and then getting the hell outta here.