The Internet Still Isn't Killing Anything

The internet's impact on face-to-face interaction and communication.

I really like this datapoint from Jonah Lehrer's article about how social networking isn't replacing face-to-face socializing.

[In the 90s internet boom many predicted technology would kill communication as we know it,] But the data show that the opposite has occurred: Cities and face-to-face interaction have become even more valuable. As Edward Glaeser, an economist at Harvard, notes in his recent book "The Triumph of the City," business travel has dramatically increased since the invention of email. Attendance at business conferences has spiked since the invention of video-conferencing. Businesses still pay hefty rents to be downtown.

As I've said in the past, the internet isn't killing anything.