I had this conversation with a couple different peeps this weekend. I know some people–including myself–who seem to prefer a computer screen to talking in person more often than not.

Does this make us anti-social? In the traditional sense, probably. But if you take into account all the online social networking going on, not really. In fact, if we consider our cyberspace interactions on Twitter, personal blogs, Facebook, MySpace (perhaps reader(s) groan here), IM, etc., we’re actually pretty darn social creatures.

From my point of view, what makes online interactions more desirable at times is having more time to convey exactly what you want (or something close to it), and not really feeling the recipient’s immediate rejection/incomprehension/awkwardness that goes along with in-person conversations. If another person doesn’t respond to your IM/Tweet or comment on your most recent blog post/status change, you can always make the excuse that they stepped away from their computer, or they simply missed your message. And if they just didn’t bother to respond, doesn’t matter as much when you’re floating in seemingly infinite cyberspace, among so many others signing on/posting to let their cyber presence be known. On the flip side, you can check on a person’s status without explicitly having to show that you actually care. And so the passive personality thrives.

Of course, I would never want to entirely replace interactions in person with online communications. Because even with video chat, the magic of eye contact is somewhat lost, which I have to say I still value. And come on, lol is not as fulfilling as sharing a good laugh fo real. Anyway, I’m sure this topic has already been touched on much more eloquently by others, but it was just on my mind. Kbye.