After reading everybody's posts, it seems that as long as we recognize which types of discourse are best suited for the internet, and which are best suited for face-to-face interaction, we can get the best out of both.

Face-to-face is good for the kinds of communication I talked about in my last post, and the internet is good for the kinds of communication that nick and hoa talked about.

That seems to be the best way to look at it.