We all really need to listen to each other, including to the boring bits.

Networked, we are together, but so lessened are our expectations of each other that we can feel utterly alone. And there is the risk that we come to see others as objects to be accessed—and only for the parts we find useful, comforting, or amusing.

Teenagers would rather text than talk. They feel calls would reveal too much.

Does virtual intimacy degrade our experience of the other kind and, indeed, of all encounters, of any kind?

People thought I was very pro-computer. I was on the cover of Wired magazine. [Then things began to change. In the early 80s,] we met this technology and became smitten like young lovers. But today our attachment is unhealthy.

We all really need to listen to each other, including to the boring bits.

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.