I view these as being somewhat of a "false" means of communication.
What I mean by this is to say that we can often "chat" online as if we're having a chat face-to-face. It is an attempt to mimic direct and immediate conversation yet it is duplicitous because online chat (and often texting) can take place over many hours or days in what would take mere minutes in everyday face-to-face conversations.
Should we consider this more when speaking and guard against a very obvious ingrained tradition of common language? When we chat on forums like these are we truly able to recognize and frame the discussion as unique in its lack of time frame?
As an example we may very well have sent messages asking mundane things like "How are you?", then received a reply saying "I am good. Been to ... recently and saw ... yesterday. How your life going?"
My question is is this really a genuine conversation or merely a mimicry of conversation? It seems to me to be a completely false interaction, whereas at a face-to-face level I would accept this a being a relevant and direct exchange of information as an introductory means of expanding the conversation into more substantial grounds. In online chats or texts it looks quite out of place and as a polite exchange looks both deeply impractical and out of place, yet we most likely all fall prey to this bizarre habit?
What are your thoughts and/or examples of this kind of "chatting"?