I added the word "reported" because I don't trust VPN providers to not keep logs, but ideally they should report that they don't keep logs and have an established history of not providing logs. Tor is really not ideal if you're trying to download anything large and you're still vulnerable depending on who controls the exit nodes.
I was trying to give general advice, since it didn't sound like they had a trusted private tracker already it's a good idea to have a VPN to mask your IP. I agree, it probably won't help against malware.
Simple, trust no one. Get a no-reported-logs VPN, don't download anything that has a strange file size or extension, look at comments, look at the number of seeders if it's a torrent. If you can, join something like a private tracker where there's moderation too. If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck then it's probably not the movie you were looking for and there might be a Trojan army inside waiting for you to let the duck enter your computer... That metaphor may have fallen apart on me...
It's not a substitution for socializing, it's just an extra thing on the side for me where I can get dumb jokes out of my system. Anything is unhealthy if there's too much of it, and if you're finding you're having trouble moderating usage then I agree you probably shouldn't be on here. But I wouldn't call it useless if you get something out of it, it just shouldn't consume your life.
Is Princess Yue cheating on Sokka?