Technology - are we prisoners of progress?

[Mom]

Does society face danger in becoming dependent on computer screens rather than face to face contact as the main means of communication?

[dan foster]

Does society face danger in becoming dependent on computer screens rather than face to face contact as the main means of communication?

Neo-Luddites hardly ever have an impact.  If you don't know the term, you may want to google it. 

I liken these forums to pre-modern times; letters were the only way to communicate anything of substance, if the recipient of the communication didn't live on your farm.  You might run into the object of your communication once a week at church, otherwise, this kind of information exchange didn't happen.  The exchange of letters between John Adams and Thomas Jefferson would be a famous example and these forums exchange far more information, and thoughts, between more people in a minute than they did over decades.

So, I think the question really is; are we spending too much time on these forums instead of getting out and socializing?  I doubt it.  I doubt that many people on here, or even at work, etc, spend more time on this forum, or email at work, than they do actually socializing with other people, especially compared to pre-modern times.  We bump into more people just passing through a grocery store or mall than most people did in a year in much of this country for the first couple of centuries. 

Does that answer your question?