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Today, with two Know More Media colleagues, I met Chartreuse and Loren Feldman in Los Angeles.  We discussed a number of things, including Chartreuse’s awe-inspiring grassroots project to investigate current conditions in the New Orleans area, which was ravaged last August by Hurricane Katrina and, sadly, remains somewhat in shambles.  (Loren is Chartreuse’s "site security guy," otherwise known as "video guy," for the New Orleans mission.)

I just have one lingering question for the world spurred by our discussion today:

I suspect that for a great many people, personal contact simply feels different now due to the proliferation of impersonal contact via technological wonders such as YouTube videos, blog comments, emails and instant messages.  We use technology so much in our communication that it affects the very ways in which we choose to communicate, and with whom.

So, while I do love metaconversations in their own right (like blogging about blogging), I was extremely glad to personally shake Prince Campbell’s hand today, offline, and hear his voice and look into his eyes, and feel his personality in a way that no amount of online interaction could ever replace.

I just wonder if technology will ever advance to the point where meeting someone offline would cease to be preferable.

That’s why I try to get to know my blog readers personally, and why as a blog reader myself, I try to get to know the bloggers whose posts I read.  We are - and ought to feel like - humans first and users of machines second.

What do you think?  How would you answer my question above?

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