As I write this I am sitting in the Vancouver airport in the departure lounge which I find offers one of the most interesting places to study electronic communication. While this is a completely unscientific study, from my current vantage point I can currently see 35 people. 14 of these are talking on their cell phones or texting/emailing. 6 people use laptop, 9 people read, 4 listen to music and 2 people are idle. An interesting side note is that the 2 inactive participants in my informal study are 2 years old while the other is an older woman who, by my estimate, is over 70 years old. I often like to study electronic communication habits while traveling because being on a plane is one of the few moments in modern life when we are forced to turn off our "electronic devices," as they are politely labeled by the aviation industry. Somehow I find it hard to believe that my cell phone can interfere with high-tech aviation electronics worth millions of dollars, but I always make sure to turn off the phone as directed. I suppose deep down he doesn't want to become known as "the occupant of seat 4A who received a phone call during takeoff that led to the crash of Flight 168 to Toronto." Of course many airplanes are now equipped with live satellite TV that keeps the electronic communication flowing like an essential drip for onboard communication addicts, but for most flying is an exercise in abstinence from electronic communication. As soon as the plane lands it's like a bunch of drug addicts waiting for their next fix while their fingers tremble on the start button. What could await them? An important call from a customer? A voice message from a loved one? ...... half of the paper ...... collide with each other in the communication environment. As message density and frequency increase, the new challenge of maintaining communication relevance is becoming a much more sophisticated task. Which messages do you accept? Which one are you ignoring? Which one do you save for later? Which ones are urgent? The separation of physical transportation from message delivery has created a new world of communication, one we have yet to fully explore as a species. It's too early to tell whether we made a mistake or a miraculous discovery when we separated physical transportation from the message delivery ecosystem, but at the current rate of cultural acceleration I'm willing to bet we'll find out sooner rather than later. ReferenceVirilio, P (1995, August 27). Speed ​​and information: alarm in cyberspace!. Retrieved October 27, 2007, from www.ctheory.net/articles.aspx?id=