Does the Internet limit real social interaction?

This was an excellent question. I have actually been found on both sides of the debate and I truly believe it is a serious issue facing our global society.

In my opinion, many people get tripped up on the definition of Social Interaction. Is a social interaction simply chatting with someone or smiling at a person you see walking down the street? Does it go deeper than that?

I believe it goes deeper than that.

For true, real social interaction, there are numerous cues and idioms that are lost in the translation between the synapses and 1's and 0's. The ability to read and react to body language is a perfect example. Over the last several years, I've watched the ability of those around me to read and understand body language dwindle and quite frankly, I'm not surprised.

My favorite example is of two of my female friends. They are best friends and even live with each other. Last year at this time one of these ladies had made a semester-long commitment to the athletic department at K-State which required long hours of strenuous work. The two simply never saw each other except for the occasional quick brush over the weekends. Their relationship quickly began to deteriorate. Both roommates came to me and asked me why they no longer seemed to get each other. After talking extensively with both of them individually and together I think we got to the root of the issue. The two couldn't read each other anymore because they just hadn't spent any time together. Sure they frequently chatted on Facebook but no real face time. Of course any time they did spend together, the annoyed each other because each was trying to re-learn the movements of the other.

This was so disruptive to both of these ladies' lives that they nearly parted ways. I encouraged them to set time aside to spend more time together doing activities, not just sit at home. Both took my advice to heart and are now best friends again. I'm sure if you were to ask them why their relationship almost ended, they would site the lack of real, face-to-face interaction.

It is true that societies can exist online and show realistic social interaction. I believe that Second Life and The World of Warcraft have shown us that online societies and real-world societies act in much the same way but there is still a piece of the interpersonal level of communication missing. When you can hear the strain in someone's voice over a stressful situation or see them shift their weight when talking about an uncomfortable subject, the conversation and interaction lose a great level of depth. Losing this level of depth seeks to make us more machine like in how we converse by removing the emotion from the equation.