Recently, Pierre Salinger, former press secretary for John F. Kennedy and by all accounts an educated man, publicly advanced the theory that the Pan Am airliner that exploded near New York over the summer was shot down by the U.S. Navy.

Salinger’s source of information was not research or any kind of hard evidence, but the new source of information that has taken the world by storm; he saw it on the Internet.

Call me an alarmist or a technophobe, but I don’t trust this Internet crap. Because no one screens the information that goes out over the computer networks, the Internet lends itself too easily to rumors, scams and other harmful information.

Naive people who lend too much credibility to the Internet are being harmed physically, financially and emotionally by people who gained their trust through relationships formed in front of a computer screen, not in reality.

Some politicians have suggested that the government should step in and try to regulate the Internet. Even though I am a faithful liberal, I don’t believe that the government can successfully protect me from anyone or anything. The idea of the government making the Internet safe is ridiculous.

In order to keep themselves safe, people who use the Internet need to take any information they get from it with a huge grain of salt, because you never know what kind of crackpot put that information there.

People who get involved in on-line relationships need to consider the possibility that their electronic love-muffin may not be the normal, sane person they make themselves out to be.

Most importantly, the Internet needs to be used in moderation, because the more services that become available, the more addictive it will become.

Many of you probably know someone who is a computer junkie. On the rare occasion that they leave their computers and carry on a conversation with an actual human being, they are always talking about chat rooms and web sites and the cool stuff they downloaded last night. I hate people like that.

Ordinary people, who are no more interesting than you or me, actually set up their own web sites. That way, everyone in the world can find out what a loser they are.

Sadly, there are people for whom computer relationships have taken the place of relationships with real people, and the relationships become all-consuming. I once knew a girl who, for two weeks, did nothing but eat, sleep and spend time on the Internet. She never went to class and had little or no contact with her friends. It was really pathetic.

Even more pathetic are students who use the computer to chat with other students on the same campus. I actually know people who would use the computer to talk for hours to people who were a ten-minute walk away.

I used to have a friend here at Iowa State who would send me email messages, then call me to tell me to check my email. Hello?

I read recently that soon, gambling will be available over the Internet. For Iowans, that will mean we won’t have to go 30 feet to the nearest casino to gamble anymore.

According to Tuesday’s Des Moines Register, people will be able to play the lottery in Lichtenstein or poker, roulette and blackjack in Antigua, all in the comfort of their own homes. Debts and winnings will be settled with credit cards.

When gambling becomes that convenient, the number of people with serious gambling problems is going to skyrocket.

The convenience of the Internet has allowed shrewd business people to exploit a very common American characteristic: laziness.

As Americans, the most obvious way for us to use new technology is to find ways to reduce the necessity of leaving the house. You can shop, travel, date, read, play golf and a thousand other things that used to require contact with the outside world, all without leaving home. This is progress?

In addition to allowing the average man to find out what some nerd thinks about “Star Trek,” I’m sure that the Internet has other valuable uses.

But at a time when the ability to get along with others is as rare as a “Tickle Me Elmo” at a toy store, the Internet is leading us toward a time when contact with other people will no longer be necessary. That is not progress.

Technology has always progressed faster than the ability of people to use it responsibly. The Internet is way ahead of us, and we need to start catching up.

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Steven Martens is a senior in journalism and mass communication from Cedar Rapids.