A-Social Networking

I've spent the last week and some change setting up our Church's social networking site pages. It's been a challenge keeping everything straight, to say the least, but it has been fun for the most part.

However, I can't help but wonder if the unintended consequence of our increased use of social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter and MySpace are worth the potential "virtual" touches. I can't help but feel that the proliferation of all things virtual will have a direct affect on our ability to connect with all things substantial.

Many times lately my wife and I have found ourselves staring at our own computers, connected to the same (facebook) network, with little to no interaction with each other. We pick up our blackberries and start typing away, connected, in a way, to other spheres of influence, while completely missing the one that we are existing in at that moment. My personality type makes me prone to such diversions.

My question restated then is: "Are the "virtual touches" that we have with one another worth the cost of actual encounters?" So much time and effort is spent on one, it seems impossible that something else won't suffer.