The Internet is a wondrous place. At least until the major carriers get their way and really jack up rates, for a few pennies or so a day, you can find people, places and endless amounts of information with a few clicks of a mouse button. You can buy just about anything you want or need virtually in the blink of an eye. And you can tell just about anyone, including your political representatives, what you want them to think about or do. Of course no one has to do what you want, but that's a neat kind of democracy. Isn't it?

So, what am I grumping about this time? Well, my friends, I'm afraid that, for all its goodness, misuse of the Internet is a real problem. I'm not talking about all that spam and those viruses. I'm also not talking about the latest Web-based scam to relieve us of our hard earned money. No, I'm concerned about the kind of Internet misuse that's discouraging the kind of face-to-face interaction humans need to stay sane and help them maintain sane societies.

Let me start with a little bit of my background. Before I got into tech journalism, I studied and taught Political Science at places like the University of California. When I started messing with political opinion polls, I had to turn to computers to process the data. That was it for me, I quickly became more interested in the computers than the data and I was outta academia in a flash. But, I never forgot some of my basic training in political philosophy and social psychology.

I won't go into great detail, but a lack of face-to-face interaction leads people to devalue themselves and others and this leads to some wacky personal and social behaviour on their part. For example, war and other kinds of violence become easier for these folks to accept because they don't have the empathy that comes with face-to-face interaction. Politicians and businessmen also get away with more because, if they are concerned about politics at all, people focus on broad political and social issues and virtual protest and not on the face-to-face social interaction required to really solve political and social problems.

Finally others suffer when face-to-face interaction is minimized. Kids are a good example. They need solid, loving personal interaction to grow into confident, effective, successful adults. That interaction doesn't happen when one or both parents and maybe even the kid are almost constantly preoccupied with tantalizing electronic emanations from the Web and other media.