I wish I had a transcript of a conversation with one of my friends today. He's a designer and equally fascinated with the dynamics of culture, so we often go off on major tangents. In all of our fast-paced volleys, we hit on good points, but you know how this goes - it's hard to get them back again.

A couple ideas we whipped around awhile were:

Whether the web has actually affected/added any DEPTH of cultural change, or, it simply makes the small, here-today-gone-tomorrow blips on the screen accessible to more people.

Just because something happens faster doesn't mean it's dependent upon speed to exist. Same with distance. We may believe we close perceived "distances" faster due to the web, but I am not convinced of this. I may find someone much faster due to search engines than letters, but once found - for an example, a friend from the past - NOTHING is solved through technology. It's still up to the two you in the present. You may exchange your pasts, catch up on personal news, and then...

...you often find yourselves stalled in that awkward "Well, what now?" If so, you'll phase into retreat again. There was a reason the two of you originally faded. Your time with each other had passed. It's like most exchanges at a High-School reunion.

There were Reasons you didn't stay

In Touch.

Moving larger quantities of words and pictures around faster and broader is not what gives us what we seek, aside from entertainment or business efforts. Being human means we need modes of connection that have nothing to do with what the web offers just because it's "The Web".

The Web is a big screwdriver, that's all.

You can let it sit, construct something new and useful or new and useless, or, merely tighten old screws back into their old places.