Where everyone gets to be an agony aunt

The last few months I have found it hard to read much. Or watch anything. Even my nervy social media addiction has been at an all-time low. What hasn't flagged is my interest in online advice columns.

- NISHA SUSAN

I used to read advice columns in magazines growing up. My memory of reading advice columns in women's magazines (Women's Era, I am looking at you!) as a teenager is of being shocked at how mean and judgmental the advice was. Perhaps it wasn't universally mean but that's what I remember. More recently, I have read a handful of long, idiosyncratic, feverish advice columns online and loved them. Cheryl Strayed's Dear Sugar, Heather Havrilesky's Dear Polly, many avatars of Dear Prudence on Slate which is rapidly mutating into "Advice Central". At last count, it had sex advice, money advice, pet advice, parenting advice, classroom advice, workplace and general advice. I read them all.