The 'Net no match for a network

It's Cheers in a box, a place where everybody knows your (screen) name and you can stop in after work -- or heck, during work -- and find that safe little spot where you fit.

That's what the Internet has become for some people, according to a report in today's Washington Post. But far from being a place to connect, the 'net has become a place to disconnect from the difficulties of life and the demands of relationships. More users appear to be signing on excessively, compulsively checking emails, pouring hours of spare time and work time into computer gaming, and preferring anonymous online chats to real conversations with their spouses, friends and children.

Six percent of respondents to a Stanford University study said their relationships have suffered because of Internet use; 14 percent said they find it hard to stay away from the Internet for several days at a time. Nearly one in 10 said they try to hide some of their Internet use.

It's yet another sign of humans' odd compulsion to overindulge in anything, to "medicate" ourselves -- by eating, shopping, drinking, "chatting" -- so we avoid the inconvenience or vulnerability that comes with maintaining real relationships with people who use their real names, function in the real world and operate on real time.