Internet: Blessing or A Curse To Lonely People?

All the Lonely People and A Meeting of Solitudes by Roger Ebert, and another article by Ezra Klein, immediately made me think of myself. Three years ago I was new to my school district and I was angry at my parents, the world and God for taking me away from a place where I was comfortable to a place where I was the foreigner. After a while my anger faded and I deluded myself into believing that I wouldn't make any friends in my new area for dumb reasons like: I'm not funny enough to have friends, and no one would ever like me because I'm just so different from all the other kids. So with that in mind I was set to not try to make any friends at all since i was so sure no one would ever want to be friends with me. I resolved I only had 5 years to spend in purgatory until I graduated and could go to college wherever I decided. Until then I figured I would just spend my total of 7 hours at school no more no less and come home to my computer and chat with my old friends on facebook and bebo or whatever social networking site was cool that month. After a while I had my annual check up at the pediatrician and the doctor asked me how many hours a day I spent on the computer/television total. I answered with more than 5 hours altogether and she was stunned and told my  mom I needed to go outside more often or I might develop depression. So my mother cut back computer time therefore cutting back my social time, and I was forced to wander the neighborhood alone, as my brother already made friends with all the neighborhood boys. As Ebert stated in his article "Just because you're afraid to go outside doesn't mean you're happy being inside," this is entirely true. I was most definitely not happy being inside no matter how much I lied and told myself that inside was better; because it's not. It is so much easier to be brave over the internet; to be bold and fearless and witty online is easy.Whatever you write can easily be edited before you send a message. Whereas in person you can't take wordds back, you say whatever you want in the spur of the moment. In person people know you for you; for the brash, or sarcastic witty you;but on the Internet people only know the polished and edited you, which is why I think the Internet can be blessing, and yet a curse.