Is lurking a healthy trend?

[Richard Prowse]

Is lurking a healthy trend? I guess that, by nature, internet sites are about lurking. In the old days people 'loitered' but that wasn't really considered acceptable behaviour. Lurking, as I understand it, is different. It's probably like 'taking a peek' without spying half naked ladies. I'm refering, of course, to the old 'peek shows'.
I just found this definition on the internet:
"In Internet culture, a lurker is a person who reads discussions on a message board, newsgroup, chatroom, file sharing or other interactive system, but rarely participates."
Sounds okay, really, to me. I just don't understand why people don't want to get more involved.