It would be easy to conclude, as modern-day Luddites would have us do, that machines come between us and the world, between others and us. And in a sense they do. After all, that is the very definition of a medium. There is also the widespread fear of media as an opiate, that it distracts in promising all. Television, for example, purveys glitter and gore in lieu of presence.
Presence is quite different.
It transcends the gloss of media and show. At the beginning of this article, in talking of the unfortunate man in the station, I assumed he was completely physically present because I could see him. Presence manifests itself through thought and emotions, yet it is neither of them. Or, in other words, in the use of media we allow ourselves to be distracted. Let me illustrate this with a final anecdote.