People may go to the library looking mainly for information, but they find each other there.

How well you do in life shouldn't depend on how well your parents did.

What really matters from the point of view of social capital and civic engagement is not merely nominal membership, but active and involved membership.

Social capital may turn out to be a prerequisite for, rather than a consequence of, effective computer-mediated communication.

A society that relies on generalized reciprocity is more efficient than a distrustful society, for the same reason that money is more efficient than barter. Trust lubricates social life. Networks of civic engagement also facilitate coordination and communication and amplify information about the trustworthiness of other individuals.

School performance, public health, crime rates, clinical depression, tax compliance, philanthropy, race relations, community development, census returns, teen suicide, economic productivity, campaign finance, even simple human happiness - all are demonstrably affected by how (and whether) we connect with our family and friends and neighbours and co-workers.

None of the people watching 'Big Brother' will bring you chicken soup if you get sick.