Human Interaction: A thing of the past or future?

Internet café: a place where you will be in the presence of others, with whom you will not communicate, while you use your computer to communicate with people who are not there

This was the definition given by the Blue Man Group at a show last week. Roughly. I wasn't taking notes.

By the way, I highly recommend their show. It was, as the critics say, entertaining, thought-provoking (who knew?), and surprising. But I digress.

In a seemingly odd phenomenon, it's not uncommon to see users engrossed in their computer at a coffee house or book store. One could argue that they are missing out on human interaction. If we think about it though, absent of computers, those patrons likely would not have spoken to their fellow strangers anyhow. In fact, some of them may even be interacting with humans on the other end of those computer lines in book stores across the country.

The Internet has changed human interaction, whether for better or worse is in the hands of each user.