Obviously, no one who criticizes television can unreservedly embrace the Internet. One cathode ray tube can be as bad as another and there are many users wasting their lives in chat rooms who should be out chatting (face to face) with real people. But the Internet has, to some extent, managed to threaten television. It has put a glossy new front end on the old idea of human contact, and made people wonder why they should have to spend so much time watching commercials. It reminds them that they can do better than TVs lifestyle of risk-free entertainment.