A communication medium both increases and decreases the same connection simultaneously.

Evidence

No matter what hypothesis one begins with, reverse tendencies also appear. … When a fire in a switching center unexpectedly cut telephone service on the Lower East Side of Manhattan for three weeks in 1975, two-thirds of the people who lost service reported that being without a telephone made them feel isolated, but one-third reported that they visited other people in person more frequently. In other words, the telephone appears to reduce both loneliness and face-to-face socializing. — Robert D. Putnam, Bowling Alone The Collapse and Revival…, 549

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Unilateral, non-reciprocal communication can coordinate both parties’ expectations — Thomas C. Schelling, The Strategy of Conflict, 201; Television expresses and contains conflict simultaneously.; Email speeds messages but multiplies their volume without shrinking total time spent — Hartmut Rosa, Social Acceleration: A New Theory of…, 1084

Broader Connections

• Television expresses and contains conflict simultaneously. #exemplifies (0.80)
• Unilateral, non-reciprocal communication can coordinate both parties’ expectations #expands (0.75) — Thomas C. Schelling, The Strategy of Conflict, 201