Digitalist life in the library

Digital World, Digital Life

Here's an interesting market research report from TNS I came across at work this week:

Digital World, Digital Life

The data on methods of communication (pages 12-13) interests me most. Do you think we'll ever get to a point where digital communication overtakes face-to-face? This report suggests that when communicating with our friends face-to-face communication is only just beating out email. However with our partners, parents and family it's much further off.

When distance is an issue there's obviously a benefit to digital communication. I know email and Facebook are my preferred methods of communication with friends who live in different cities. But I really can't see me getting to a point where I'd rather have an email conversation with a friend from round the corner rather than meet them for a pint. And although my partner, Laura, and I have been known to use Google Chat to converse even when we're in the same house, it is on very rare occasions and usually in jest so I can't see digital communication ever winning out there. At least for us.