We were compelled to read 'fractally'. The reader and responding writer needed to recognize the order within the seeming disorder of the temporally contiguous but non-contingent messages. Yet, the months long exchange succeeded in remaining a complexly coherent conversation with multiple participants. One of the most striking features of our email exchanges was the merging of what we identified as immediacy and delay. The technology provided a vivid sense of the immediacy of connection, of receiving and sending messages.
Messages easily flow back and forth in a matter of hours rather than days.
Unlike oral conversation, however, where all participants are present and follow the immediate unfolding of comments in 'real' time, the email exchange entailed intricate delays between the writing, sending, receiving and reading of messages, and further delays in responding. Although this contributed to the discontinuous, asynchronous complexity of the exchange, it also permitted the privileges of delay. Even those who might be reluctant to claim a turn to speak in an oral conversation, were free to construct and send their messages. All of the expectations of prompt, spontaneous response in oral conversation are transformed. This merger of oral and literate practices has implications for the repositioning of readers and writers, as can be seen by a brief inspection of educational practices.