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I'd like to begin with one of my favorite little pieces from a writer from the New Yorker.

He describes how when his son turned 12, they seemed to lose their closeness and he couldn't

find a way to establish connection and have conversations.

But then he stumbled on texting.

Although he reported his son was doing it all the time so he figured, ah, this is the

way in.

And his son taught him some abbreviations.

But as he writes, the one he didn't have to teach me because it was so self-evident

was LOL.

And I knew right away that it meant lots of love.

Because he put it at the end of every message he sent me.

So he said it's such a beautiful telegraphic abbreviation of a 20th century.

It's like a little arrow of love you can send out to anyone you know.

So he describes the next six months of his kind of infatuation with instant messaging

and its power of emotional transmission.

And he sent LOL to everyone he knew.

He says his sister was getting divorced and he wrote her, we're all behind you and beside

you.

LOL.

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