Zika? Terror? Thanks to the internet, Wally has plenty to worry about
I used to look at the internet frequently when I was working full-time (but never at the neglect of my other work, wink, wink,) but now that I have a lot of extra hours on my hands, it has almost become an obsession.
Perhaps that explains my increased levels of anxiety and depression.
As I read my computer screen, odds are something awful happened just minutes ago and I’m watching it unfold live, perhaps like a suicidal man causing a standoff in my neighborhood last week.
There are so many things to worry about. What gets my attention? North Korea launching missiles from submarines? Nice to think about that possibility on our coasts.
Or should I freak out about the Zika virus spreading from Florida? What about hacking? It seems that no computers are safe. What are the fanatics of the Islamic State up to these days?
I read a heartening story about a teenager who survived being infected with brain-eating amoeba. But he only survived because someone in a Florida hospital had the foresight to test for it and the manufacturer of the medicine was nearby. The company’s president delivered it.
Even good news like that comes with stress. When you are through with that story, your screen fills with other headlines about people of all ages who didn’t survive the rare disease.
Everything bad or dangerous is covered in depth on the internet. True, there are positive stories, but it is pretty apparent that everyone is under stress.
A site on the internet even had the number one cause of financial stress in every state. In Illinois it is paying off debts, it said. In Missouri it is having enough money for emergencies.
Who do you believe? I read someone’s opinion that the stock market is about to crash, scrolled down a bit and read someone else writing about how the market will keep going full tilt. An economist once told me the secret to economic forecasting was to forecast early and often and hope no one keeps track of what you said.
But I keep reading just for stories like this. Three restaurants in Germany, two Japanese and one Chinese, are fining customers who don’t eat all their food. That’s a stunner, but these restaurants are irritated with people who don’t eat all they take from buffets. Not sure I see that one catching on the USA even though we all lived through the clean-your- plate stuff from parents and school teachers.
Some things have me talking to my computer screen. “How to retire without a mortgage,” a headline read. Pay it off, I said to myself.
“Do you have what it takes to be a millionaire?” another headline asks. Dumb question or poorly written headline?
Since it takes a million dollars to be a millionaire, suffice to say I don’t have what it takes.
By then I was yelling, but it got worse. A moment later I was in entertainment news and I started screaming at a story that will haunt me for days. Someone is making a movie of Britany Spears’ life. A horror flick, no doubt. It’s all too depressing.
This story was originally published August 27, 2016 at 7:40 AM with the headline "Zika? Terror? Thanks to the internet, Wally has plenty to worry about."