Into the social network

It used to be that people came together around the fire. Now they come together around the television.

Our social commitments often bring us together with people in front of the television. This can be a wonderful thing as long as we keep our social commitments first. It would be a terrible thing if we let a technology alienate us from others on the basis that we need it more than them; or, at the other extreme, insofar as we stand too stridently apart from those who "need" it at all. A commitment to other people implies sometimes going where other people want to take you, if only because you are interested in them, whatever your feelings about the place they are taking you. The most socially committed people will be the ones best prepared to go anywhere, in observance of their commitments.