Computer-mediated communication is eclipsing the conventional forms of public debate in the United States.

the future of computing was conversational. Every interaction with a computer is already a conversation of sorts, just using buttons, keys, and pixels to translate human thoughts to machine-readable code. Now that barrier was starting to break down. Machines would soon understand our language. It was, and still is, a thrilling prospect.

The problem, of course, is that email didn’t live up to its billing as a productivity silver bullet. The quick phone call, it turns out, cannot always be replaced with a single quick message, but instead often requires dozens of ambiguous digital notes passed back and forth to replicate the interactive nature of conversation.