The consequences of this shift in how, when and where
we communicate are manifold. One is a dramatic increase
in the speed of communication which is in turn bound up
with the greater expectations of the speed of response.
When email replaced paper in business mail, the speed
of response to a communication memo or request
was expected to be quicker. Now if you own a mobile
device that lets you read your email anywhere, there is
an expectation you will be responding at all hours of
the day, even when on vacation or in the early hours of
the morning. The ‘texting’ culture among teenagers is
even more pressurised; not answering within an hour
of receiving a text message is considered very uncool.
Another example of the quickening of communication
is the ability of people to simultaneously deploy IM
(instant messaging) with multiple people. This affords a
previously impossible level of interaction – though whether
continuous partial attention is effective is open to dispute
– where dialogues with many different remote people can
be maintained all at once.