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Is the Internet good about anything? Apart from amusement or doing the occasional browsing or online transaction? I am beginning to doubt it.

It's good for having discussions like this. :P

Are cars any good? Apart from driving ;)

The internet is a tool: use it well and you will benefit vastly from it, otherwise yes you can waste your time on it.
The internet is one of the biggest technological advancements in the twentieth century, it has a lot of information that you can learn and do research on, as if you were at a library.
You can shop online, or just window-shop. You can watch documentaries, you can keep in contact with old friends who now live on the other side of the globe, you can read the news or check the weather, you can plan trips by looking at online maps. This can all be done by using one device. Electronic devices can use memory that were already impressively efficient because a 700MB can hold more text than thousands of sheets of paper, as demonstrated by Bill gates here: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DL2KneCWkAEbIbA.jpg
But the Internet introduces a new concept, streaming: You no longer have to save a permanent copy of the content that you want to access, if you read information online or listening to a song online, you don't need to save the whole text or file, only a temporary copy is made.

Of course, you could easily argue that in theory, people can use it the internet for those purposes, but in practice, that doesn't always happen. You could use the internet for less "beneficial" things, such as watching funny cat videos or playing a farm simulation game. Some people may disregard these as a waste of time, but in fact, entertainment once in a while is quite important. This is not exclusive to the internet, the same could be argued with watching television, reading comics or playing board games. The internet could be compared to a kitchen knife, that can do good by cutting/slicing/chopping food, or it can do harm by physically attacking someone with it.

So to answer the question, the internet is most certainly good for a lot of things, it is by no means good-for-nothing. The internet can be a lifesaver for people wanting to learn new skills like a new language, but live in a remote area where libraries and language classes are limited, or like I said, talking to family or friends who live far away. Yes you could probably do that with a telephone, but now you can even video call or just simply text the via instant messaging. To play the devil's advocate, some people can argue that the internet has caused some issues like piracy, but I won't get into that controversial topic here!
We've established that point, but can we live without the internet? Most certainly, humanity has done it before the internet was conceived. Of course, it can be very difficult to completely stop using the internet for us now, but we do not physically need it, not even to live a happy life.
But what for? As I said before, the negative "effects" of internet can be manifested in other forms of media, if someone stopped using the internet 24/7 only to play video games and watch TV soap operas all day, that wouldn't be any better at all. If you ask me, stopping all usage of internet should only be reserved for people who are chronically obsessed with using the internet, or of course if you're not interested in it at all.

what mo b says.

Most technologies invented by man are used in good and bad ways. How technology is used is a reflection of the people using it, and as we know, society is made up of mostly good people and a few bad people.Think back to when scientists split the atom and nuclear technology was discovered – it was used in "good" ways (nuclear power stations, medical treatments) and in bad ways (nuclear weapons). And so the internet is no different in that respect, although the good, beneficial things we use the internet for vastly outweigh the bad things, as pointed out by Mo b.

They are quite good at polluting the atmosphere with CO2 (except electric cars)  :D