Chris recently emailed the following response to the discussion on New Media.

It is just possible that the combined influences of an abundance of multimedia input to the very young - impacts their ability to more fully develop effective interpersonal communication skills.

This behavioural process does certainly enhance the speed of developing certain eye - hand - brain coordination to be sure.

Today, military recruiters loiter about video arcades - searching to find the next young 'starfighter' exhibiting the very same skill sets which in turn will set an enemy desert tank ablaze in nanoseconds.
But, we in essence are spending less actual physical time together - as both children and adults.

It's not a fluke that the video game industry now far exceeds the combined revenues of the television and motion picture industries - combined.

As a result, we begin to 'search' for emotional clues to help us establish an effective common ground - in actual, physical 'face to face' meetings - more slowly - and less effectively.
It's rather awkward to 'hug' a computer screen - and get any 'real' emotional feedback..

Perhaps New Media designers and engineers need to now refocus a little more on this human need component to grow more effectively - and ultimately, less dangerously.