Another interesting point contained in the previously mentioned SEED book excerpt:

According to the New York Times, in 2009 the average teenage user sent or received 2,272 text messages per month. Assuming a sixteen-hour waking day, that’s 76 messages per day, five per hour. And that’s just an average…. Numbers like that suggests a seamless, continuous flow of messages woven throughout the day. Teenagers will text on their devices inside knapsacks during class, during restaurant meals, even while driving. That’s dangerous and sometimes fatal, but the allure is so strong they cannot resist. And, of course, many adults behave the same way. This intense connectivity reveals a longing for fast, dense communication—one that current bodies and devices can only partly fulfill.

This observation is interesting because you’re always hearing patrician nannying types saying that the rise of technology is walling people off from one another. But it seems as if technology is actually empowering people to communicate more than ever. Doubtless, yes, this is not direct communication — these are not people standing right next to each other — but not all communication can be direct. That would seem an obvious point for a society that seems in love with collections of letters written between great figures of history.

Of course, you could contemplate whether there’s really any value in communication between humans. Most people, especially teenagers, are absolute morons. Whatever ideas and sentiments that pass between them are likely dull, anti-intellectual and pointless obscenities that contribute nothing to the growth of art and culture the way this blog does.