While at the Tonner Collectors’ Convention in Lombard, Ill., last weekend, a fellow writer and I got into a discussion about the impact of the Internet on doll collecting. She mentioned her concern that youthful doll collectors of today use the Web as the only source to feed their doll-collecting passion, and in the process, shows/conventions will be forgotten or never even discovered in the first place. And if that’s what’s happening, it’s a shame, she contended, because nothing can replace the face-to-face interaction to be had with fellow doll enthusiasts at an event, and the energy experienced at one simply can’t be substituted electronically. I tend to agree with her viewpoint and think the Web should be a place to interact and enrich one’s doll world experience; however, it’s an accessory, a side dish if you will, not the main course.

What do you think? Does the Internet replace the need for doll shows/conventions and events? And while we’re on the subject, how does the Web change the role of a magazine?