Virtual Interaction

* I was pleased to read Charles Piller’s piece on the impact of mobile communications on our sense of place and community [“The Place That Tech Forgot,” Column One, Oct. 19].

The social transformation that will accompany this new technology, though uncertain, will certainly be substantial. The emotional and psychological dependency that people develop for constant tele-connectivity rivals the lure of auto-mobility that has obsessed us for the last 50 years.

However, like many of the pundits who claim that the “death of distance” enabled by new communications technologies will destroy communities of place and great cities, Mr. Piller has missed half the story.

Every available indicator of the amount of face-to-face interaction in our society--from the number of conventions and hotel rooms to the number of Starbucks and Kinko’s outlets--shows that growth in our physical interactions has tracked the explosion in virtual interactions.

Technologies for communications are essential to support face-to-face meetings. In fact, researchers are beginning to discover that the primary use of both e-mail and mobile phones is to arrange business meetings, social events and lovers’ rendezvous. It is no wonder that mobile phones and boarding passes go hand in hand.

The mobile information society need not be an alienating one. In fact, maybe we’re all actively working to build it so we don’t ever have to be lonely again. Would that necessarily be a bad thing? That’s one of the things we’ll need to think about in the coming years.

ANTHONY TOWNSEND

Taub Urban Research Center

New York University

New York

*

Business welcomes your letters. Write to: Letters to the Business Editor, Los Angeles Times, 202 W. 1st St., Los Angeles, CA 90012. Submit e-mail letters to bizletters@latimes.com. Please keep letters brief; they are subject to editing. Letters must contain your address and phone number.