2.

There Can Be Too Much of a Good Thing

If you're a denizen of the Internet, I probably don't have to tell you how addictive it is. Heck, I can check the time and then check it again "10 minutes" later and find that four hours have passed.

Here's just a little data to give you an idea things are right now.

You've probably heard people complain that TV was the first winner in the take-no-prisoners bye-bye-human-interaction sweepstakes. For the record, radio was probably the first culprit, though some claim it was books. Take a look at that chart. Between them, at least some of the time, TV and the Internet, sometimes both simultaneously, occupy almost all of the people interviewed by Ball State University. And look at the increased contribution of TV and the Web in other than evening hours.

Sure we're not talking about everyone spending every hour hiding from others while surfing the net or watching TV. And, sure a sample of 350 is small. But remember, we're talking about middle-America, where I would expect use of TV and the Internet to be significantly less than on the sinful left and right coasts. I wonder what these folks would find if they did a poll in West Los Angeles where I live. Cringe.

"Ah," you might be thinking, "but people talk about what they see on TV and the Internet. Sometimes they even use these media with others present in the room." True enough and I'm sure that sometimes social positives come from all of this. However, I still believe face-to-face interaction that focuses in an unfiltered way on who we are and how we feel is far better for us than anything else.