text: There's something to what you say, though I'm not sure I buy the notion that online company is, on the whole, more "congenial" than actual human contact. Distance and anonymity can make for a particularly toxic brand of nastiness. 
  
  I know you're not arguing that virtual communities are better than traditional ones, but a lot of people seem to think they are. I find that concerning. The more the technology of communication advances, the less meaningful communicating people seem to do. I worry about those for whom their most intimate relationships are with people they've never seen.
  
  As I get older, I find that weekly trip to church increasingly important to me. There's something about being in the same physical space with a lot of other people for an hour and, together, acknowledging our sinfulness, thankfulness and need for sustenance -- and then getting kicked back out into the world. I find it soul-soothing in a way I can't imagine anything online ever being.