Changing contexts of communication

Abstract

As 'The Internet' becomes ubiquitous in the popular culture, and raises new questions about how computer-mediated communication (CMC) may affect peoples' lives, it may be of value to look back at the effects that earlier sudden exten sions of communication have had. As well as past effects predicting future ones, sometimes contemporary trends may evoke the past. It has been suggested that the emerging Electronic Age has features which correspond to the earlier Middle Ages. This first in a series of Electric Writing essays and reports, which will examine individual, social, political, economic, professional and others aspects of the Internet and Electronic Culture, reflects back on some communication effects of the preceding Oral, Written and Print Cultures. While none of these is in truth clearly distin guishable chronologically or demographically, there are effects which can be associated with each which may inform our future.

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