'The Guardian' recently ran an interesting article about a current trend of criticism of social networking technologies (e.g. websites such as Twitter and Facebook). Read the article here The arguments include claims that social networking makes us lazier, less able to digest large quantities of information, and less human. An example: we go into a cafe and see people sitting at their laptops or tapping away on their mobile devices, whilst not actually talking to the people around them. So in effect, ignoring the real people around them, and focusing instead on communicating with others through electronic devices. Those who disagree with these arguments state that social networking actually increases communication and helps to bridge geographical distances. They also argue that it is simply not true that people used to chat with those around them more before these new technologies existed. So the question is: did people really used to chat to each other more (on buses a...