The conference I was on this week was quite wonderful. The theme was beauty, but around the edge of that a variety of other questions emerged. One of them was a new version of what might sound to some like “an old chestnut” – except that it does genuinely bother people, and is therefore, to my mind, an important question: the concern that people (especially the “younger generation”)  who spend a lot of time using facebook, blogs, twitter, email, texting, etc. etc. are ceasing to have the ability to communicate with real people.

The extremes of the argument were there – on the one hand, being in touch online isn’t “real”, on the other hand, it’s better for a teenager to be in touch with likeminded people online than to sulk alone in their room.

I agreed with elements on both sides of the argument. I agree that however “in touch” you might be via a screen or a portable device, it isn’t the same as, and doesn’t replace, the quality of interaction when you sit down and look someone in the eye while you are talking to them. I also agree that new media is a brilliant tool for connecting with people who are too far away to see face to face.

I pondered the fact that during the 50 hour conference, I had spent a large number of hours talking face to face, quite a lot writing with a pen on old-fashoned paper, but also tweeted some of the bits of wisdom that were emerging.

It also occurred to me that before we had new media, people didn’t always sit across the table concentrating on each other – how many conversations of childhood can you remember when someone had a half-focussed conversation with you while hidden behind the newspaper?

Church Mouse has a good interview up today with a “new media” officer., which explores some of these ideas further Here’s a clip:

Do you have to be a geek to use new media?
… no, you don’t have to be a geek… I think all you need to use new media is an open mind, and to come to terms with the fact that you really know nothing. Saying you need to be a geek to use new media is like saying you need to be a mathematician to run a bank. It might help, but it’s not essential. Apparently.

Read the rest here