Modern Relationships 2 ― Visible communication

Online communications

Sometimes I find it hard
Sometimes I find it unbearable
Sometimes I find it very dangerous

Because it is all visible

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In real, direct, face-to-face communication,
there is a lot of "grey" things
(which we don't have to make clear anyway)

Unless being recorded by a camera/a voice recorder
we can't accurately compare
who talks more,
who reacts more,
who engages more

On the other hand,
in modern communication tools, typically text messaging,

Amount ― How long we write
Number ― How many texts we send/receive
Frequency ― What time & how often we send/receive

..........these things become all visible

X sends 10 texts to Y, and Y sends back 1

X replies a text immediately, and Y replies 10 days later

X can see "Y opened & read my message 10 hours ago"

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Unlike face-to-face offline communication,
online communications are all recorded & extremely "visible"

"Visible" means, in this day and age,
"more objective",
"more reliable",
"more trustworthy", strangely enough

As a result, online communication is used to evaluate
current situation of the relationship
current "power (im)balance" of the two people

And makes all of us uneasy