NY TIMES – Jan 7 – Generations of high school sweethearts have stayed together into college. College dating is changing. Skype figures large in this trend. But what students say they find most romantic is a handwritten letter. Also long-distance involvement keeps many from fully embracing their own campus. “Sometimes they don’t feel that they are fully present at school because they are getting pulled back into the connections with the other person,” says Jefferson Singer, a clinical psychologist and Connecticut College professor. College administrators pride themselves on a vibrant, engaging campus life, and prefer students to start fresh, open to new experiences. FULL ARTICLE @ NY TIMES
Mark Brooks: We'll see a lot more visibility on this desensitizing of our worlds of communication. Face to face communications 'feel' very different than computer mediated communications. Face to face, in short, is far more psychologically rewarding and healthy for us. We all need to maintain a balance, and not drift too far online.