Yesterday, the New York Times put up an article titled “Antisocial Networking?” which I found on their Twitter feed.  It’s an interesting article which covers a few common threads in how our social interactions are modified, either for better or for worse, by the Internet.

I personally feel that face time matters a hell of a lot.  It’s interesting, too, that Facebook is named as it is, when the most of a face that’s visible is a scaled down photograph.  What’s important about the face is in how we figure each other out, and how we pick up on facial cues; as the NYT article mentioned.

In the long term, humans are rather adaptable, as are most creatures.  We can deal with a great deal of a changes, both on the personal and on the larger social level.  In the process of that, however, there certainly are going to be adjustment periods in between, where we falter a bit in adapting to the new set of circumstances.  I almost wish that there was more discussion on the transitions, rather than good/bad polarizations; yet perhaps that hasn’t been studied enough thus far, or it doesn’t sell the story quite as well.

Clearly, access is another large part of the equation.  It’s easy to forget how many people don’t have computers of their own, or even phones of their own, in certain parts of the world.  SMS is certainly huge right now, because it allows for greater access.  With data rates and mobile plans structured the way they are, video chat is most likely going to be a long way off.