Connecting

I have been feverishly working on finishing my Master's program lately. It is a concentration on technology in education, especially on the emerging web-based applications like blogging, wikis, nings, media and social sites, etc... We even looked at things like virtual worlds (2nd life...) and what is happening with those applications right now and considered how they might apply to education. (I found it interesting that Harvard is actually starting to conduct classes in a virtual world.)
But regardless of the advances in technology a large comfort level gap exists between digital immigrants (those who did not have technology around for the majority of their lives) and digital natives (who grew up with the internet, computers e-mail, social sites and the like all thei life--they speak 'geek' so to say). This 'comfort level' discrepancy tends to breed a certain fear of technology making people less interactive and personal. Although it isn't talked about much, there seems to be a fear that the more we rely on technology in this fast paced world, the more we will loose our sense of connection to each other. But I am finding, to the contrary, that once I push past my fears and become comfortable using the technological applications, my ability to connect is actually stronger. Sure, I still need to see my friends, laugh, hug and watch their facial expressions as we swap stories; but becuase of emerging technological programs, I am able to interact with my friends (albeit virtually) in a more efficient way because it is done asynchroneously instead of trying to capture shared free time in people's busy schedules. So here is to venturing out and connecting in the vast virtual world!