"Our beloved is not lost. Our beloved is manifesting in a different form."

this is actually a Buddhist mediation on death
but I think things like IM on idle and light touch passive systems such as Twitter and even to a certain extent the status on Facebook is like this

you don't have to actually talk to the person to know they exist
they are still there ... I would love it these systems were more emotive...
like a very light pulsing heartbeat
like they ...breathe

I have people on my IM list I don't talk to anymore... but when I see them.. I know they exist and they are out there.. somewhere
and it pleases me