At least one of them anyway. From an AP story:
"The superficial emptiness clouded the excitement I had once felt," [26-year-old graduate student Gabe] Henderson wrote in a column in the student newspaper at Iowa State University, where he studies history. "It seems we have lost, to some degree, that special depth that true friendship entails."
Across campus, journalism professor Michael Bugeja -- long an advocate of face-to-face communication -- read Henderson's column and saw it as a "ray of hope." It's one of a few signs, he says, that some members of the tech generation are starting to see the value of quality face time. [...]
"I think we're at the very beginning of them reaching a saturation point," says Bugeja, director of Iowa State's journalism school and author of Interpersonal Divide: The Search for Community in a Technological Age.
Though he's not anti-technology, Bugeja often lectures students about "interpersonal intelligence" -- knowing when, where and for what purpose technology is most appropriate.
He points out the students he's seen walking across campus, holding hands with significant others while talking on cell phones to someone else. He's also observed them in coffee shops, surrounded by people, but staring instead at a computer screen.
"True friends," he tells them, "need to learn when to stop blogging and go across campus to help a friend."
Link: Some tech-gen youth go offline (Wired/AP).
Gabe Henderson's article in the Iowa State Daily is here: Myspace 'friendships' lack time and energy.
Michael Bugeja has a website for his book here: Interpersonal Divide.
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