Even hypothetical new media (e. g. advanced "virtual realities"), conveying a di mensionally richer sensory display are unlikely to prove fully satisfactory, substitutes for face-to-face interaction. Electronic media decompose holistic experience into analytically dis tinct sensory dimensions and then transmit the latter. At the receiving end, people can re synthesize the resulting parts into a coherent experience, but the new whole is invariably different and, in some fundamental sense, less than the original. Second, there is evidence that screen-based technologies (such as TV and computer monitors) are prone to induce democratically unpromising psychopathologies, ranging from escapism to passivity, obsession, confusing watching with doing, withdrawal from other forms of social engagement, or distancing from moral consequences. Third, a strength—but also a drawback—to a virtual community is that any member can exit instantly. Indeed, an entire virtual community can decline or perish in the wink of an eye.