I think so. And I’ve been saying exactly that for at least a year. Did a whole talk at Canyon Ranch recently about how our super-connected virtual world is actually making us less connected, less available to our primary relationships. My theory was just a hunch, but this article in the May issue of The Atlantic has statistics based on longitudinal studies making the point, “In a world consumed by ever more novel modes of socializing, we have less and less actual society. We live in an accelerating contradiction: the more connected we become, the lonelier we are.” Sad, huh? And they didn’t even really get into whole thing about folks using Facebook as an excavation ground for digging up long forgotten loves and yanking them into the present tense. That happens a lot, you know. It’s a great article–The Atlantic always gets it right.

The bigger point, I think, is that we have to be intentional about keeping connected to the physical–what’s right in front of us–instead of spinning off into our virtual worlds by default. In my talk at Canyon Ranch, I threw out a rather edgy suggestion that we go ahead and use the physical (yeah–sex) to address the emotional in our relationships as a way to get out of our heads and back into our bodies. Why not, right? Well, I got a little push back from certain members of the crowd. Okay, that’s an understatement. This one woman wanted to stone me right there in the conference room. Security! Dr. Oz said practically the same thing of GMA the other day–wonder if she’s been cyberstalking him? Probably not.

Anyway, it’s a cool article to check out. And it just might remind you to point, click and shutdown your virtual fan base, in favor of your in-the-flesh fans sitting around your kitchen table, local coffee shop or yoga class.