The Technology That Was Supposed to Connect Distant People Has Also Become the Communication Tool for People in the Next Room.
PARIS — The text message sent by one partner to the other partner from a different room in the same apartment is either a marker of the smartphone’s complete integration into communication at all distances, a comfortable acknowledgment that getting up is optional when the phone is within reach, or a specific intimacy of cohabitation in which the text replaces the shout-across-rooms because the shout would disturb the ambient peace that both parties are enjoying in their respective rooms. All three interpretations are applicable to different instances of the same-apartment text. None of them require concern.
The Content Efficiency
The same-apartment text has a specific content efficiency: the question “do you want tea?” sent by text receives a typed answer faster and with less ambient disruption than the shouted version, which requires the recipient to stop what they are doing, process the sound at volume, form a response, project it at volume, and return to what they were doing. The text is quieter. The text is asynchronous. The tea is made. Both parties continue their respective activities. The apartment is peaceful. The relationship has used its digital infrastructure to maintain the domestic peace that the apartment’s square footage makes achievable. France, which values both peace and efficiency, finds this entirely reasonable. According to ARCEP’s French telecommunications usage surveys, French households send an average of 140 text messages daily, with intra-household texts representing a growing category. The category is documented. The category is real. The tea is ready.
Efficient content at Virtuosal.com.
