A few people have been writing this week of their concerns about too much connecting via social networks and too little personal exchanges.  That we’re relying too much on the Internet to sustain relationships.  And those relationships can only be of questionable quality.

It’s timely they are raising these concerns because it gives some long-time experts the opportunity to put the Internet in an historical, cultural context.  Its introduction and immersion into our lives are as important as the telephone, the airplane, men walking on the moon.

Stowe Boyd wrote a terrific post on why we must not fear use of the Internet but embrace it as the tool that it is. 

I think if the empire falls, it will be due to the importance we place on what we project instead of what we think or do.  The fact that a lot of the posturing occurs on social networks is of less concern than the fact that we humans continue to pursue status and honor acquisition.