One thing I just realized about communication thanks to the Internet and text messaging is that we have a tendency to shoot our mouths off and speak too freely. The problem is that we have instant access and can get a message to someone immediately. We have Facebook to add someone we barely know, find out a lot of information based on what about themselves that they put online, then we think we know them and assume they know we're joking (because people try to be witty on the Internet) when we say certain things.
Problem: we don't know each other. We aren't any closer to one another. I can stick my face in front of yours and you still won't know me, the same way you can decorate your face, color your hair, and all these ways of enhancing(?) the way you look and I still won't know you no matter how much close we are in proximity.
Technology is putting everyone together like sardines in a can, but just because we're squished together in a tight place with no space does not mean we become familiar with each other.
My friend makes fun of my religion, I tell her I am offended, and she says she was just kidding. Instead of distance and catching up with each other in person or by a well-thought out letter that comes in the mail sometimes, she has the ability to send an e-mail that is all lower-case, full of typing errors, and lacking punctuation, the same way someone makes a quick response to a yes or no question. There is no thinking involved now with technology, it's get to the point and sound funny doing it (most jokes are also recycled since they get passed around the Internet).
In the 1980s, when I talked to someone, it was because I knew her, and when I wrote to her, I thought about what to say and it was very private. I knew exactly what she was sensitive about, what we were interested in, and wanted to know what she was up to, and the same goes for her in regards to me. If she made fun of something I said in a letter, it would be easier to determine because of our intimacy as friends. Thanks to technology, we don't have that intimacy, since we are separated by this monitor screen from people.
"The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel"... - William Gibson, opening lines to "Neuromancer"