Finding Help and Comfort Online


When you're looking for answers, where do you go?


Recently, my mom had to be hospitalized for endocarditis, and my father told me how he felt like he had become a doctor by searching on the internet for answers.


Imagine the doctor told you about a disease you had, but you had never heard of it before. People these days have access to information only doctors could obtain years ago. The internet can offer people new ways to find comfort at a time that is so painful. Instead of being left with only questions, people can now get answers if they know how to find it.


We are in the second generation of the internet, and people are using the internet to better their hobbies, shopping, and more. Ask a question, any question, and the internet has at least ten web sites with answers.


How can the internet better your life? The possibilities are endless, but where does the future lie with people who now have access to all of the information known to man? Will this benefit mankind, or make it worse? The future will be documented by the internet, and may be modified by it as well.


The article written by Mary Madden & Susannah Fox called Finding Answers Online in Sickness and in Health gives statistics about the recent rise of people who are using the internet to better their lives. This article discussed how people find comfort when their loved ones are in the hospital, and it is really true. I know this from personal experience. The internet has answers, answers that sometimes bring hope, answers that connect you to organized information on anything.