By Dominic Basulto, Washington Post
Two seemingly unrelated events — Google’s launch of its new social network Google+ and the decision by the U.S. Postal Service to target 3,700 of its branches for potential closure — may have more in common than you think. Together, they are representative of the fundamental changes that are taking place within our modern communication networks. The changing nature of the way that we communicate with each other should have network and information theory gurus salivating at the prospect of a new, grand experiment. It makes sense that, as the physical nodes of our communication network begin to disappear forever, we are rushing to fill them with new digital nodes. It is a search for meaning in our social lives. If all this is starting to sound a lot like a digitally updated version of the bestseller Bowling Alone, maybe there’s a reason. As a society, we are moving further and further away from messages and communication, and more towards pure information, delivered to whomever wants to receive it.
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