We're smitten with technology. And we're afraid, like young lovers, that too much talking might spoil the romance. But it's time to talk.

What is the value of interactions that contain no understanding of us and that contribute nothing to a shared store of human meaning?

What I'm seeing is a generation that says consistently, 'I would rather text than make a telephone call.' Why? It's less risky. I can just get the information out there. I don't have to get all involved; it's more efficient. I would rather text than see somebody face to face.

Not every advance is progress. Not every new thing is better for us humanly.

Human relationships are rich and they're messy and they're demanding. And we clean them up with technology. We sacrifice conversation for mere connection.

Terrified of being alone, yet afraid of intimacy, we experience widespread feelings of emptiness, of disconnection, of the unreality of self. And here the computer, a companion without emotional demands, offers a compromise. You can be a loner, but never alone. You can interact, but need never feel vulnerable to another person.

We are not as strong as technology's pull.