The subtitle to this blog should be: Sam strikes again. As in, my friend Sam sends me a link that does the prickly thing down the back of my neck. This time he sent me a link to a blog called Six Pixels of Separation written by Mitch Joel of Twist Image. I have no idea who Mitch Joel is or what Twist Image does other than this description: DIGITAL MARKETING AND MEDIA HACKING INSIGHTS AND PROVOCATIONS FROM HIS ALWAYS ON/ALWAYS CONNECTED WORLD. Kind of far from writing for children and young adults, right?

Except that what this particular post is talking about his encounter with Sherry Turkle at Ted.com and his realization that our digital life may not be be making our lives better. Read the post and then check out Sherry’s Ted Talk:

I’ve been thinking about the digital monster for a while. I love it and I hate it. I love that we can be in touch and find stuff out at the speed of a finger pressing a button. But are we really in touch? Are we really knowing each other? Is the content of our contact better? We can say, “Oh yeah, I sent him an email and told him what I thought.” But did we have an exchange? Did we wade into the grey areas of feelings and understand each other better? Did we walk away knowing ourselves or the other person better? As a writer, a woman and a mother, I think these deep waters are important and I wonder every day if we aren’t becoming candidates for drowning as we press buttons and think we are in touch with one another when really, we are drifting further and further apart.