"According to best estimates, only 7 percent of human communication occurs on the verbal level. Pitch, volume, and other vocal tone account for 38 percent, and body movements such as gestures and facial expression account for a whopping 55 percent. As we have all experienced, the way a person makes eye contact can mean a whole lot more to us than whatever he is saying. But online, we are depending entirely on that tiny 7 percent of what we use in the real world. Absent the cues on which we usually depend to feel safe, establish rapport, or show agreement, we are left to wonder what the person on the other end really means or really thinks of us. Our mirror neurons—the parts of our brains that enjoy and are reinforced by seeing someone nod or smile while we are sharing something—remain mute. The dopamine we expect to be released when someone agrees with us doesn’t flow. We remain in the suspicious, protective crouch, even when the situation would warrant otherwise—if only we were actually there. Imagine living in a world where you were deaf, dumb, and blind, and had to rely on the text coming at you in order to figure out what people meant and how they felt about you. Then, to this add not knowing who any of the other people really are. Our experience online is less that of the unprejudiced intellectual than that of the autistic living with Asperger’s syndrome. While a lot has been argued back and forth about whether computer use or gaming might cause spectrum disorders, direct observation alone has revealed that our digital behaviors closely mirror those of Asperger’s sufferers: a dependence on the verbal over the visual, low pickup on social cues and facial expressions, apparent lack of empathy, and the inability to make eye contact."__DOUGLAS RUSHKOFF