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le_bebna_kamniI always thought that the internet was a godsend when it came to information. I'm definitely a person who believes in the free sharing of knowledge, and I love the idea that I have almost any kind of information at my fingertips, without having to leave my home. Countless times I've been in a debate with someone (and successfully argued my point) because I could jump online and find the facts I needed.
But while the Net is a great place if you need to know statistics from the Bureau of Justice or the ACLU, and Wikipedia is a blessing, there are just some things you can't find on the Web.
As I mentioned in my previous post, I've been going through a lot of hard times lately, and it's been a struggle to cope with what has been happening. I'm a do-it-yourself kind of person who often turns to books when I have questions, but since I've been spending a lot of time at home lately I thought I would look online for answers.
Now, I've gotten to the point where I can find just about anything I want to know in just a handful of minutes searching the web. Occasionally, if it's a complicated subject that requires a lot of cross-referencing materials, I might spend a couple of hours because I don't know the subject very well. But search as I might, I can't find any help for the particular issues I'm dealing with.
No, strike that. I can find a lot of sites offering help with what I'm going through, but they're all advertising that you can have relief from your suffering if you'll only pay $199.99 and – if you act now – we'll throw in a free set of Ginsu knives. And I'll bet you that 99% of them are at least on some level bogus hype.
I find that, while information that most people don't want is perfectly free for the taking, if it's too useful they want you to pay.
Let's say you want to lose weight. Other than the "consume less calories, eat vegetables, and exercise at least 30 minutes a day", there's not much free diet help out there. Want to learn how to invest your money? You can find mediocre explanations on what mutual funds, CDs, and REITs are, but if you want to know how to invest, you need to fork up $389.99.
Of course, there are just some things that people won't prey on because they don't dare. I've done research on suicide (don't worry, I'm not feeling suicidal, for anyone who might be worried), and found that while most sites online aren't particularly useful, they don't try to sell you something if you want to die (that would certainly get some bad publicity for your company if you tried, and you might not even be able to collect the money).
No, I retract that statement: online sites on suicide can be very useful...if you actually want to follow through. I've found several sites detailing new and interesting ways to commit suicide. I've even seen a comparison site that weighed the pros and cons of each way to die, and how successful people are at committing suicide each way. But for people really needing help, it's not there. I've even seen sites where someone posted that they felt like they wanted to kill themselves, and seen responses like, "Go ahead and do it, you loser!"
I initially thought that liability was the issue: if you give someone advice about an issue like suicide, and something goes wrong, you could get sued. And obviously there's an aspect of that there. But there are a lot more things out there with liability issues that people are still willing to give advice on, even if they aren't professionals – but only if you pay.
Take sites for anxiety, low self-esteem, or obsessive-compulsive disorder. There are a lot of free sites geared towards directing people towards "resources" (read: pay sites and paid professionals), but almost none that have any truly useful information.
While most of the people "offering" help are psychiatrists or licensed therapists, there are also people who advertise because they overcame their own disorder. As in handing out any advice, there's always a certain amount of liability (and of course they put in the disclaimers about consulting the appropriate professionals who can take the blame instead of the author), but obviously there are people more than willing to help someone out if the price is right.
And why not? Advice is easy to give, and I don't think the information you receive from a book or a self-improvement program is that different from what you get in a therapist's office. Therapy is really all about teaching people to help themselves. The therapist gives you exercises to try, and then you check back every so often to show that you're doing them and see how you're progressing. The thousands of dollars you're paying is for a personal coach, a personal motivator, not someone to solve your problem for you (although many people think that's what therapists do). But the techniques a therapist might give you can be summed up in a 250-page book (and often is, by that same therapist), if you're willing to try them on your own motivation.
So if I can learn to deal with my pain or grief or anxiety on my own, why aren't there free sites on the internet helping you with that? I mean, I can learn to build my own computer or program in C++ for free. I can learn how to work on my car or build a model rocket (or a bomb, for that matter), and no one's going to charge me for it. But the second I want help with the things that really matter, I had better start pulling out my credit card.
The truth of the matter is, no one offers any real help if people are willing to pay for it. They always teach you as a kid that you can't put a price on the things that truly matter in life – you can't put a price on love or human emotion or happiness...I guess with the internet you can.
But while the Net is a great place if you need to know statistics from the Bureau of Justice or the ACLU, and Wikipedia is a blessing, there are just some things you can't find on the Web.
As I mentioned in my previous post, I've been going through a lot of hard times lately, and it's been a struggle to cope with what has been happening. I'm a do-it-yourself kind of person who often turns to books when I have questions, but since I've been spending a lot of time at home lately I thought I would look online for answers.
Now, I've gotten to the point where I can find just about anything I want to know in just a handful of minutes searching the web. Occasionally, if it's a complicated subject that requires a lot of cross-referencing materials, I might spend a couple of hours because I don't know the subject very well. But search as I might, I can't find any help for the particular issues I'm dealing with.
No, strike that. I can find a lot of sites offering help with what I'm going through, but they're all advertising that you can have relief from your suffering if you'll only pay $199.99 and – if you act now – we'll throw in a free set of Ginsu knives. And I'll bet you that 99% of them are at least on some level bogus hype.
I find that, while information that most people don't want is perfectly free for the taking, if it's too useful they want you to pay.
Let's say you want to lose weight. Other than the "consume less calories, eat vegetables, and exercise at least 30 minutes a day", there's not much free diet help out there. Want to learn how to invest your money? You can find mediocre explanations on what mutual funds, CDs, and REITs are, but if you want to know how to invest, you need to fork up $389.99.
Of course, there are just some things that people won't prey on because they don't dare. I've done research on suicide (don't worry, I'm not feeling suicidal, for anyone who might be worried), and found that while most sites online aren't particularly useful, they don't try to sell you something if you want to die (that would certainly get some bad publicity for your company if you tried, and you might not even be able to collect the money).
No, I retract that statement: online sites on suicide can be very useful...if you actually want to follow through. I've found several sites detailing new and interesting ways to commit suicide. I've even seen a comparison site that weighed the pros and cons of each way to die, and how successful people are at committing suicide each way. But for people really needing help, it's not there. I've even seen sites where someone posted that they felt like they wanted to kill themselves, and seen responses like, "Go ahead and do it, you loser!"
I initially thought that liability was the issue: if you give someone advice about an issue like suicide, and something goes wrong, you could get sued. And obviously there's an aspect of that there. But there are a lot more things out there with liability issues that people are still willing to give advice on, even if they aren't professionals – but only if you pay.
Take sites for anxiety, low self-esteem, or obsessive-compulsive disorder. There are a lot of free sites geared towards directing people towards "resources" (read: pay sites and paid professionals), but almost none that have any truly useful information.
While most of the people "offering" help are psychiatrists or licensed therapists, there are also people who advertise because they overcame their own disorder. As in handing out any advice, there's always a certain amount of liability (and of course they put in the disclaimers about consulting the appropriate professionals who can take the blame instead of the author), but obviously there are people more than willing to help someone out if the price is right.
And why not? Advice is easy to give, and I don't think the information you receive from a book or a self-improvement program is that different from what you get in a therapist's office. Therapy is really all about teaching people to help themselves. The therapist gives you exercises to try, and then you check back every so often to show that you're doing them and see how you're progressing. The thousands of dollars you're paying is for a personal coach, a personal motivator, not someone to solve your problem for you (although many people think that's what therapists do). But the techniques a therapist might give you can be summed up in a 250-page book (and often is, by that same therapist), if you're willing to try them on your own motivation.
So if I can learn to deal with my pain or grief or anxiety on my own, why aren't there free sites on the internet helping you with that? I mean, I can learn to build my own computer or program in C++ for free. I can learn how to work on my car or build a model rocket (or a bomb, for that matter), and no one's going to charge me for it. But the second I want help with the things that really matter, I had better start pulling out my credit card.
The truth of the matter is, no one offers any real help if people are willing to pay for it. They always teach you as a kid that you can't put a price on the things that truly matter in life – you can't put a price on love or human emotion or happiness...I guess with the internet you can.
