Pinky on Conversation

Whether it is the long weekend or the spirit of Thanksgiving, I have been blessed by a lot of communication from friends and relatives, including some very nice surprises from old acquaintances and one freshman year in college roommate. The communication has largely been supported by internet applications, mostly Facebook and I have thus been noodling on the art and mechanism of communication. I actually emailed another friend from college who is a professor in communications and queried her as well. The prevalent question for me is: Are we truly engaging in meaningful dialogue with our many many threads of input and output, largely electronic, primarily unaccompanied by other than static photos, if that, or are we participating in an exercise that further separates us from emotional bonding? My husband ranted about front page news on Thanksgiving day being about the violence in Mumbai rather than for once being a local interest and warm-hearted story, but despite my initial disagreement with him, I do wonder whether our race to be the first to KNOW and our seemingly never quenched desire for blood is also somewhat echoed in our pale and superifical connections ....... I am delighted that I am able to be back in touch with so many friends from the years, but I wonder if I am destined to just give MORE people LESS of my ear and heart? I still am a believer in the urban legend that we only use 10% of our brains and I am committed to exercising more of mine, if possible, but.......