David Liu, an executive at AOL, calls it replacing the in-box with “a river that continues to flow as you dip into it.

Thinking about this quote from David Liu in the WSJ.com article dovetails nicely with a key facet of my dissertation research. Email works with the old online (check/send messages), offline framework. However, we’re increasingly moving to a state of constant, or as I argue, persistent presence in our lives and selves. The online/offline dynamic, while still important, is becoming less effective as a mode of thinking about our relationships to technology/media AND each other. We’re no longer “going online” to check mail, or look something up… when was the last time you told someone you were “going online?” This is no longer an action we do or place we go because we’re already there- persistently. Even when “we” are not there in an active way, a sense of us is, continually informing and being. This is what I call the “social extensibility” of technology, the way it allows us to expand, extend, and enhance our self and social presence. More to follow…

Posted via web from MarkGammon