Final Comment

Thurlow quotes Kling (1996) as stating "a technological system can be both cause and effect; it can shape or be shaped by society". I agree with this statement. Not only can the system shape or be shaped, it is society that ultimately defines what technology should be introduced.

Don't have time to think of these things...

While I understand the concepts of communication, mediate, and computers, it was helpful to describe communication in terms of multifunctional and multimodal. But I don't believe that once in the mode of a transactional communication process, the person(s) engaged will necessarily think of things like the purpose of the engagement (multifunctional), or that what they say may be taken out of context (multimodal).