Community - stay tuned

For some time now this idea of community has been rolling around in my head. I've wanted to write about it, but it just hadn't come together. Well, given a number of events over the last few weeks, thoughts on community have come flying at me. So I guess I better actually sit down and start to think and write some of this out.

The crux of my thinking is that many in society began to complain that technology was actually becoming a barrier to community, that people were more isolated. Then BAM, along comes social networking - society seems to have, organically, responded. This is a truly major shift in global thinking when you think about it. All over the world, people have started to say - we want to be connected, on our own terms (along the lines of Reed's Law, which Sarah Robbins blogged about a while back.
http://ubernoggin.com/archives/116)

Are we at the dawn of a new age? Has society, unconsciously, or subconsciously, in unison, responded to a stimuli, or lack there of, if you see community as an essential part of existence.

There's probably more to come on this.