Two-Way Digital Media as a Temporal Extension for Dialogue
Digital Media tools shrinks the space between us, but does something entirely else with Time
The ability to communicate no matter the distance is one of the foundational changes brought by Digital Communication. In the era of the telegraph, the ability to shrink distance for the purposes of communication was seen as almost divine (the first morse code message was “What hath God wrought?”). But in the era of facetime, texts, emails, and DM’s, being able to contact anyone in the world in a short amount of time is seen as commonplace. This “destruction of distance” has been thought about by scholars, and experienced by users, as a decrease in time between sending and receiving communication.
But, it would be wrong to think about the shortening of response time as the only Temporal effect of media. Modern media allows two-way communication flexibility in response time. Let’s look first at conversation. Whether through the phone or in person, a conversation requires both presence and attention from both parties. It is impossible to speak to a person who is not in front of you or on the other end of a phone call, and if either party is focused on something other than the conversation it is usually saved for later.
Video calls act as conversations in this way, but the rest of the communication types have evolved from the written word. One-way messages are the bread and butter of most written communication, whether instructions, rules, or written entertainment. Even the earliest forms of mail were relegated to Kings to help spread word of new decrees. Military, and civilian, mail finally put the written word into the realm of two-way communication.
Letters, and later telegrams, did shrink the world. They also introduced asynchronous conversation. The speakers did not have to be available or attentive at the time of receiving a message, and could instead respond at the time which best suited them. This is only the first step of the Temporal effects of technology-aided communication.
Modern text-based communication is still asynchronous, but with much greater flexibility. A text message could be responded to anywhere from a few seconds to a few weeks later, all while the original message is stored for reference. If someone asks a question but the recipient is busy, they can read and respond later. The original message remains intact, preserving the context and allowing the conversation to continue . This persistence is not found in verbal communication, where if a topic is not immediately addressed, it can be forgotten or misunderstood later. While letters also allowed for asynchronous exchanges, they lacked the immediacy and persistence of digital messages. If a letter's recipient did not reference the original question or topic in their response, the sender could be left puzzled about the context. In contrast, digital messages are stored and can be referenced , ensuring continuity and clarity in communication.
Another profound impact of digital media is its role as a temporal archive. Social media platforms and digital communication tools store interactions indefinitely. This archival capability allows individuals to revisit past conversations, posts, and comments, providing a continuous narrative over time. This can range from old text conversations, social media pages, or forum threads. The automatic storage of communication can be used as a future reference, or as a way to “revive” otherwise dead conversations (this mostly applies to forums, where old threads might become active once again if it is relevant).
Marshall McLuhan, the father of Media Studies stated "the medium is the message." This means that the way we communicate shapes the content of our messages. When our dialogue is no longer bound by time or distance, what does this say about our interactions? In the professional realm, emails often demand more formality than in-person conversations because the expectation is that the recipient will spend time and care crafting a response. Text messages are shorter and more concise than spoken dialogue. As communication shifts from face-to-face to screen-to-screen, the methods, contexts, and expectations evolve. It's crucial to consider not how, where, and when we communicate, but also what we end up saying.