On the small screen classics of our childhood like Saved by the Bell, Boy Meets World and even the tumultuous love affair between Winnie and Kevin on The Wonder Years; romance, friendship, rivalry and every other human interaction was carried out as students interacted between classes and after school.

Nowadays between classes, if I’m not listening to my MP3 player, I talk on my cell phone leaving little chance for connections deeper than a polite smile and wave with acquaintances I pass on the sidewalk. My companions throughout the day, instead of live people, are Dashboard Confessional, Liz Phair, Fergie, a host of oldies but goodies and podcasts.

I remember a day when study buddies were people instead of ear buds and when lunch was eaten with face-to-face conversation instead of a game of cell phone tag. As technology advances and is made available, we are given the opportunity to become a little more “connected.”

But at what cost? The Web has supposedly made the world smaller, but to become global are we sacrificing the art of human interaction? In the age of communication does how we do the talking matter?

Which communication method do you use most during the day? Is it AIM, Facebook, e-mail, text messaging or cell phone? Not that these gizmos aren’t wonderful, but if you ask me, there is something much more glamorous about a conversation over coffee or even a handwritten letter than a hurried and cryptic text message’s main purpose is the conservation of characters.

It doesn’t matter if a hand written letter is 100 characters or a million, as long as it fits in a standard size envelope, the cost of connection is only 41 cents. How many of us can say that of our cell phones?

The other day I got a message from a caring friend reaching out to me over the World Wide Web. Unfortunately it came the same day I got 57 million junk e-mails. In the pile of straw I didn’t see her shining needle of encouragement, so it got tossed out like Isaiah Washington from Grey’s Anatomy.

She asked me a few days later why I hadn’t responded and it was because her message got lost in the cyber junk. She saved a draft so she could resend it, but just think if I hadn’t had that face-to-face conversation. I might have lost the laurel branch of friendship because it got lost in the jumble of cyber communication.
The other night I was in my apartment with my husband. I was in our living room working on my laptop and my husband, Kyle, was in the other room playing a game on his desktop. As he played and I worked, we chatted on MSN. We were together but not really.

That is how it is starting to feel in my classes and social groups. We are together, but each of us is listening to our MP3 players, talking via cell phone or sending text messages.

I don’t understand text messaging. I would much rather just have a vocal conversation. Next to being in the physical presence of someone, hearing the human voice offers a more personal link and insight. We were sitting next to each other, but instead of talking we isolate.

Now don’t get me wrong; I don’t think we have completely become sociopathic little bubble dwellers having conversations only in cyber space, but I do think there needs to be a rebirth of human connection. I challenge you: the next time Facebook tells you one of your friends has a birthday coming up, send them a card instead of posting an impersonal message on their wall. When

Grandma sends you a care package, set aside a half hour to call her and thank her. When you see someone you know on the sidewalk, take off your earphones and exchange actual words for a minute. Radical, I know, but I believe in you guys.