Towns and Communication: Communication in Towns

The advent of email and texting has dramatically changed the way we communicate. In essence, we have lost "touch" in our dealings with each other. This change may have been speeded by newer technologies, but telegraphs and telephones had a great impact in our perceptions of time and place. Before mass communication, the way we ordered and embedded knowledge and the possibilities of social interaction were defined by the extended human experience of living in towns. Can this experience be replicated with new technologies?