And when computational or bureaucratic systems prove too rigid, it is through talk that we negotiate appropriate work-arounds. As social creatures we are enormously skilled at conversation. It is through conversation that we portray ourselves, advancing our personal goals, taking credit, sharing blame, and accomplishing other social ends, often with great subtlety. Given the centrality of conversation to our lives, it is disquieting to see how drastically conversation changes when it takes place in the digital medium. It is cumbersome, particularly among more than a few participants.
Conversations often seem to lack coherence, tending towards drift and dissolution.
In CMC many of our finely honed skills become irrelevant. And the audience to whom we are used to speaking becomes largely invisible. Yet the changes wrought by the digital medium aren t all negative. Persistence expands conversation beyond the those within earshot, rendering it accessible to those in other places and at later times. Thus, digital conversation may be synchronous or asynchronous, and its audience intimate or vast.