We cannot create such moral bonds out of nothing; invariably, we must grow them in the soil of existing traditions and their extant friendships, such as parishes, congregations, and fellowships (p. 204).

The final Chapter of Habits of the High-Tech Heart  (Sojourning With Heart) holds out very little apparent hope for really doing anything to “redeem” online community,  or even to look to a hope that such can take place.  It seems to me that his own “Informatinism” has delimited his range of vision for what can take place online.  If online realtionships are, by nature, “instrumental”,  and all communications “impersonal”,  then of course his evaluation of the value of the online world is as “information”.  Read on in “There’s Really a ‘There’ There”