Virtual Reality

I ask the question: "In a sense, are we robbed of true intimacy with other people by the way the media gives us a virtual sense of intimacy?"

What I have in mind is the relatively new way electronic media is able to mimic interpersonal intimacy by enabling us to feel "next to" a person or in the presence of another person when we are not. Especially with TV and film we can hear and see another person speak to us in a way that our senses have evolved to associate with intimacy. The concern is that this is only one way communication. We can be spoken to by the "person" on the TV but we cannot speak back to them. Can this result in TV stars replacing the kind of true intimacy we need with other people?