Simulated Conversation?

All of the talk and reading about simulation got me to thinking about e-conversing, whether it be through email, facebook, or instant messaging programs, possibly even text messaging. Conversation used to be an action performed between two people in a personal, physically close environment. If the two could not be in the same place at the same time, there was either no conversation, or the two would write notes to each other, something inherently personal due to the use of one’s own etching makes and handwriting. With the invention of the telephone, the personal touch could still be considered to be there because people were using their actual voices when conversing. All of these types of communication use a medium which is inherent and personal to the two people who are partaking. However, now with cyber-life we have taken to conversing through email and facebook, instant messaging and texting and I can’t help but wonder, are these types of communications simply simulations of communication. There are some things that I get upset about when people bring them up over the internet because I feel like the subjects should not be discussed over the internet and instead in a more personal way. Is this me just being panic-stricken about the production of the real? Are these really simulations? Is that why people feel they can reveal more over the internet because on some unconcious level we know it to be a simulation and not something real? Can we write it off as something not real in our world?