If you've read this column for any length of time, you know I am a big fan of 'LinkedIN' as a way to maintain existing business contacts while making new ones. Well, I am now transferring some of my energy in that arena to the social networking site called Facebook. I know, you may have already been on it for years. I am a newbie. I was urged to get on-line there by my friend Jennifer Bjorklund, who told me if I gave it a chance I would not regret it and she is right on that account. I have already re-established contact with people I went to junior high school with! I'm not kidding. I think it's pretty neat!

 But I heard something the other day which stopped me in my tracks and really made me think about the possible dependence people may have on sites like Facebook and others. This person told me she likes to use both 'Facebook' and 'My Space' to keep in touch with her friends and family because it allows her to stay up to "without having to talk to them".

 Really? Is this what it has come to? We substitute these web sites for virtual contact in lieu of real contact? Do we now abhor human contact so much that we rely on web sites like these as a huge social crutch? If so, what does that say about us? Anything good?

 You lose something when you lose real contact. If you doubt this, try to tell a joke by typing it to someone and see what kind of reaction you get. You need to see a person's body language to read how they are receiving what you are telling them. Why wouldn't you want to talk to your friends or loved ones? Is it because we are all now so focused on what we say that that's the only thing we care about? We want to be heard but we don't want to listen? We want the communication to be all about us and no one else? I thought about this for a little last night and I found it really bothered me. On-line communication is so sanitized. Black letters on a white background. You can miss a lot by just taking the message in that way, which is why, whenever possible, I also add a VLOG to my writings, so you can hear which words I punch and see the expression on my face.

 While "LinkedIN" and "Facebook" can make communication a lot easier, especially with folks in other states and countries, I think it can also unintentionally build walls between people.

 Quote Of The Day: "The lack of emotional security of our American young people is due, I believe, to their isolation from the larger family unit. No two people--no mere mother and father--as I have often said, are enough to provide emotional security for a child. He needs to feel himself one in a world of kinfolk, persons of variety in age and temperment, and yet allied to himself by an indissoluble bond which he cannot break if he could, for nature has welded him into it before he was born." Pearl S. Buck

 This Day In History: Pope John Paul 1 was installed as the 264th pontiff of the Roman Catholic Church on this date, September 3rd, 1978.

 Something You Should Check Out: I told you I was on a mini-vacation with my family last week at Iowa's Lake Okoboji. The community is home to, among other things, the Iowa Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame. On the outside of the Hall of Fame is a speaker system which plays the hits of yesteryear. One cloudy afternoon, I was walking by there with my family and heard a song called "Everyone's Gone To The Moon" by Jonathon King. It is a pretty song, and kind of deep is you really think about the lyrics. Take a listen and let me know what you think.

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