New media is a misnomer. Devotees to the new glorify novel forms of communication and these technologies and applications are unique only to the present. However, despite the changes in reach and ability, the conversations that surround these media remain relatively unchanged.

“Any device that enlarges one’s environment and makes the rest of the world one’s neighbors,” telephone inventor Amos Dolbear once remarked, “is an efficient mechanical missonary of civilization and helps to save the world from insularity where barbarism hides”.

Carolyn Marvin: When old technologies were new (p.192)