October 28, 2025-
We daily continue to see the negative outcomes of Covid because many persons lost contact for so long with human in-person interactions that they are even now only comfortable with digital interactions. There also are many persons who are not comfortable in human interactions in person and prefer friendships and relationships digitally. My point is not to argue that persons cannot have friendships digitally or that they should not have them. No, that is not my point. My point is to argue that human physical interaction relationships in most cases are going to be superior. Friendships require mutual respect, mutual caring, sharing ongoing living experiences together, availability during difficult times and a willingness to take the role similar to a good loving family relationship that sadly many persons do not have. Cicero called a true friend another you. The advantages of physical interaction include the often essential element of physical contact, the requirement of being there in person together ,the inability to just turn the person off anytime and just leave as one can do on the Internet, the opportunity to be able to read the person by eye contact, body language and the opportunity to size up the the person’s sincerity in-person with what I will call the “sixth sense”. It allows them to read a person they are with as to their sincerity, willingness and desire to be a good friend. One can read the tone of the voice, subtle facial expressions and full body language in space that gives the person a far more complete understanding of a person as opposed to digital communication where this is not possible. There is too much missing in digital interaction as there is only that one screen where the interactions take place. There also can be no substitute for the interactions that take place as two people share experiences together in different environments such as physical intimacy, traveling together, spending hours and days together just interacting individually and in group settings. These shared experiences create a unique history together that cannot occur with digital relationships. As a final thought, while I believe in-person relationships are superior to digital relationships,I by no means minimize the importance of digital relationships for many persons.