In the current issue of The New Atlantis, writer Christine Rosen takes a hard look at the effect social networking sites (Facebook, MySpace, et al) are having on our social interaction. Increasingly, she notes, people are giving up face-to-face relations, content to communicate through “technological surrogates.”

Although social networking sites are in their infancy, we are seeing their impact culturally: in language (where to friend is now a verb), in politics (where it is de rigueur for presidential aspirants to catalogue their virtues on MySpace), and on college campuses (where not using Facebook can be a social handicap). But we are only beginning to come to grips with the consequences of our use of these sites: for friendship, and for our notions of privacy, authenticity, community, and identity. As with any new technological advance, we must consider what type of behavior online social networking encourages.

What are the costs of our connections? How, as communities and as cultures, are our methods of interaction, even our very sense of what constitutes credible relationships, changing?

Rosen weaves an ominous note through her analysis, summed up with a foreboding consideration: “These virtual networks greatly expand our opportunities to meet others, but they might also result in our valuing less the capacity for genuine connection.”

That is a mighty big “might.” Worth considering, to be sure, but also consider that we’ve always found ways to minimize interaction when it suits us (burying our faces in books, hiding under headphones, or just zoning on the couch with our latest Netfllix delivery). It makes me wonder what constitutes Rosen’s “genuine” connection.

Is grocery shopping a genuine connection, or is the time saved using Peapod and instead taking my daughter to the park ultimately more genuine? If there’s nothing worth my two hours and ten bucks at the megaplex, why can’t I say home and watch Cool Hand Luke for the zillionth time? And isn’t someone who screens a few potential suitors using an online dating site saving his or her valuable time and actually expediting the search for Mr. or Ms. Right?

Certainly, there is risk that some might so favor their “interactive isolation” that they self-select from society. My guess, however, is that we’ll use these online means to build richer relationships that translate to more fulfilling real-world connections. And even if someone is content to camp in front of his computer, scarf delivery pizza, and play at being popular, at the end of the day, is that a horrible circumstance? Misanthropes and misfits have always had myriad non-technological retreats, and I’m not terribly interested in making their acquaintance in the first place.

The shakeout from social networking sites remains to be seen. No doubt some will use them as their sole means of interaction. I’m inclined to think, however, that most of us will see them as a way to maintain that comfortable isolation while also permitting as much interaction as we may, at any moment, care to indulge.