There's this study : http://www.csudh.edu/psych/Virtual_empathy_-_Positive_and_negative_impacts_of_going_online_upon_empathy_in_young_adults.pdf http://www.csu

There's this study : http://www.csudh.edu/psych/Virtual_empathy_-_Positive_and_negative_impacts_of_going_online_upon_empathy_in_young_adults.pdf http://www.csudh.edu/psych/Virtual_empathy_-_Positive_and_ne... It says "little negative effects for online usage, except for gaming both for males and females", but the other thing it says - "little decrease in face to face time" contradicts other research that talks about greatly decreased face-to-face time : http://www.studentpulse.com/articles/1137/the-effect-of-technology-on-face-to-face-communication http://www.studentpulse.com/articles/1137/the-effect-of-tech... So it does require more research. As for changing to video chat - i'm sure that would help(to some extent, and depending on video chat quality [things like eye contact]) but the weird question is - how do you make face to face chat as addictive as facebook/reddit/HN ?