Sources:

Windows XP interface
ICQ interface
MSN Messenger interface
Google Talk interface
Assortment of smileys
Scene from the movie 'The Relic' - 1997


Message:

I attempted to portrait modern forms of communication between people and
the understanding of the word 'talk' that is often used in chat sessions.
Maybe the dictionary needs to be updated.

The movie scene in the center shows a rather intimate situation in which a
man and a woman are talking. The environment seems very private and we, the
viewers, are watching them through a steel mesh. The conversation they are
having seems to have important and maybe personal contents.

Emotions can easily be conveyed in face to face communication, but there
seems to be a substitute; the smiley that became an icon long ago, has now
evolved into a huge range of shapes that are all meant to depict human
emotion in online chat programs. MSN Messenger calls them ''Emoticons''.

Why are chat programs that popular, and often even a substitute for
interpersonal relations? Real life conversation is shrinking in the face of
the vast opposition.
Why do we call it 'Communications' when there is actually less
communication?