Persons do not become a society by living in physical proximity, any more than a man ceases to be socially influenced by being so many feet or miles removed from others. A book or a letter may institute a more intimate association between human beings separated thousands of miles from each other than exists between dwellers under the same roof.- John Dewey, 1916, Democracy and Education
The quote is almost 100 years old. I wonder what Dewey would have thought about the Internet, email, IM, blogs, and tweets...