In a way, I think the Internet, with its end-to-end (face to face) architechture, restores what Harold Adams Innis calls “orality” to our communications.
There are whole realms of media between us in this end-to-end architecture though, of course. Many kinds of soft and hardware between users of a forum or email service, etc. But there is also a sense of immediacy in these exchanges. The face of my computer feels different when I am on the Internet then when I am using a word processing program. And when sound is added to this experience, as on web radio stations, pod casts, voip telephony, or audio blogs, and then visual immediacy with webcams- though there remains an important element of detachment- I do feel more connected to the people, thoughts and places I’m communicating with.