The other night, I was thinking of texting Dennis to let him know about how long it would be before I expected to be done and on my way home. Problem was, my El Cheapo cellphone couldn't pick up a signal because of my location, something that usually happens in cinderbrick basement rooms, hospitals, Coon Valley, etc. So I figured I'd just call when I was out of the Dead Zone.
That's when I realized what first blogging (with comments enabled), then texting, then Facebooking, then Tweeting, then ??? has taught us about communication: Many "two-way" conversations are really one-way conversations that happen to cross each others' paths. Mind you, it's entirely possible to have synchronized mini-monologues disguised as dialogue--that's just how it sometimes works out.
But the way the conversation develops (perhaps even evolves) in the unsynchronized format is what--to my way of thinking, at least--makes it ultimately more useful. Such pauses--not an option in person, on the phone, or over chat--are opportunities to take the proverbial breath. To bite back on the sarcastic rejoinder...or to sharpen its cutting edge. To find a more diplomatic phrasing than immediacy would allow. To back one's hunches with "facts" of whatever pedigree we require. Or to take the conversational "escape hatch" of simply letting the reply box drift out of sight upstream.
Yes, the looser standards of grammar, the LOL-spelling and character limits are often bemoaned, sometimes for good reason. Yet I would argue that, in the the afore-mentioned respects, the somewhat mis-labeled "interactive" web/mobile experience has actually improved communication. Net gain or net loss? I wouldn't begin to guess. But I do know that the payoff on perspective can be quite handsome when one learns to appreciate it.
