Let's face it moms. It's a virtual on demand world out there. No one should know this better than a blogger and podcaster, right? As such, you'd think I'd be a huge advocate for online community building. And I am, to a point. But what scares me, and Kristin's post about Second Life confirms, is people are using the Internet and personal computers to replace what used to be face-to-face interactions. What's more, our kids are growing up in this kind of environment. What are we teaching our children when money magically appears from ATM machines? When any television program can be watched at anytime? What our children see is a world where we can order anything and everything—from groceries to movies—from the comfort of our homes and viola...it just shows up on our doorstep. In the words of my 4-year-old, "It's so awesome."

As a busy mom with more commitments than hours in a day, I am grateful for these modern day conveniences. Don't get me wrong. Yet I often find myself longing for days past, when there was nothing on television worth watching and you had to head outdoors to find "something to do." And it's not just at home. We're all working harder than ever before and technology is to blame here, too. Email, voice mail, IM, text messaging. No matter where you are, big brother can, and will, find you. Is there even such a thing as a "day off" anymore?

So I wonder, is all of this technology really helpful to society? When I started my career in public relations, I did as the job suggests: related to the public. Often this was achieved through the filter of the media, but on occassion my job involved organizing and hosting public events. These events were often free and almost always open to anyone interested (or those poor souls without something better to do). Today, public PR events are generally a bust. This past weekend I had an event at the Boston Public Library. The attendance was sparse, to say the least. While the turnout was clearly a disappointment, there was a bright side: the online community I am building on Gather.com for this project is growing steadily. Why? Because my target audience is all at home on the computer, probably downloading last week's episode of Lost.

This weekend I lost faith in community. I began to wonder how this on demand world we live in will continue to shape us in years to come. Will we all just take in that which already interests us, failing to learn anything new along the way? I'm thinking this: If your First Life is not doing the trick for you, building an avatar in Second Life is not the answer. Getting out with friends, joining a community organization, a book club, or taking an adult education class, is.

But please leave your Blackberry at home.