Union Square. (vintage postcard, public domain)
Communication is accomplished in a variety of ways, speech and handwriting among them. Technological innovations have vastly increased both the capacity and reach of communication. It started with standardized printing, which replaced scribes, then later on broadcasting and sound recording, which supplanted live performance and oration.
One result is that the message and the intent can become more accessible to more people - an important and worthy outcome. But as the numbers and the distances grow exponentially over shorter periods of time, they shift our collective emphasis, pulling us further away from of native awareness of both the individual and the present moment. We may continue to experience or observe but lose our ability to conclude that one person did this.
