From the John Markoff in the New York Times: Portrait of a Newer, Lonelier Crowd Is Captured in an Internet Survey. Norman Nie, a political scientist at Stanford University, states “the more hours people use the Internet, the less time they spend with real human beings”. He asserts that “the Internet is creating a new wave of social isolation in the United States, raising the specter of an atomized world without human contact or emotion.” I completely disagree. What about the fact that the Internet brings people together from the far reaches of the world and bridges the gaps of distance and between cultures? Sure there are people who should spend more time away from the computer screen and out in the sun, communing with people in the flesh, but in general, the Internet has broadened our capacity for reaching out to others, not lessened our social interactions. Hmph.