A great NY Times article describing research demonstrating the importance of face-to-face time in children connecting with others and developing relationships. What’s fascinating about this article is that it doesn’t just explain the importance of “real” connection with other at  psychological, emotional, and social levels, but rather its role biologically and even neurologically in our ability to establish relationships.

Here’s a great quote from the article: “If you don’t regularly exercise your ability to connect face to face, you’ll eventually find yourself lacking some of the basic biological capacity to do so.” This finding has immense implications for children who are spending increasing amounts of time connecting to others through a screen (up to 7.5 hours a day on average according to a 2009 Kaiser Foundation survey).

Very much in line with my latest parenting book Raising Generation Tech: Prepare Your Children for a Media-fueled World.