Communication

In terms of the history of human communication networks, it wasn't that long ago when people relied on hand written letters to stay in contact with friends, family, and business associates. We used to take pride in our letter-writing abilities - pages of prose telling our story and communicating our feelings for the recipient. We took time to think and express ourselves meaningfully.

LOL! ur sooo wicked. BRB...

Now, of course, we are interconnected by a vast network of tubes.
Those tubes rely on computers, local networks and vast server farms.


We are living in the future of communication. With smartphones you can access the Internet, shoot and edit HD quality movies, take pictures and instantaneously share them, use it as a GPS device, a credit card... the list goes on and on.

The communicator from Star Trek? Good for making voice calls.

I think science fiction needs a reboot.
We're catching up too fast.


Smartphones will soon be the number one way people connect to the Internet, and in a sense, each other. But are we really still connecting?

The average length of a phone call has been steadily decreasing for years. We used to e-mail, but now we mainly text. Or Tweet.

Pages of handwritten letters compressed to 140 characters.
Communication built for speed, not content.

With cosmetic surgery and photoshop we've artificially tweaked our outside appearance. With social networking, we're tweaking our inner selves to be just as superficial. A couple weeks ago Peggy Orenstein had a great piece on personality and how social networking is changing the way we construct our identities: I Tweet, Therefore I am. Are we moving completely towards an external sense of self?

Am I not me? Am I only who you say I am?
And do I only have 140 characters to convince you otherwise?


On Star Trek, the crew was surrounded by technology - dependent on it for communication, exploration, and survival. But at the heart of every episode of Star Trek was human interaction. Sure, we were on the Enterprise going boldy into the darkness of outer space but the more we explored the universe and learned about alien life forms, the more we discovered about ourselves, about humanity.

Let's hope that our current revolution in communication gives us that same opportunity.