Along with Nancy I'm dubious about claims regarding particular forms of communication as, at least implicitly, "ideal" or even "more human" than others (which is not to say that some may not be "more mediated" than others).

There has been some thinking along these lines in the HCI/CSCW community. See for example Hollan and Stornetta's 1992 paper 'Beyond being there' (http://www.hcibib.org/gs.cgi?word=checked&terms=C.CHI.92.119) and Paul Dourish et al's 1996 paper http://www.hcibib.org/gs.cgi?word=checked&terms=J.JCSCW.5.1.33 These were reactions to the at the time (and still, to some extent) popular analytic trick of comparing audio/video mediated communication with 'face to face' and thus showing how IT mediated communication was 'poorer'. Dourish et al point out that it is 'different' and, in some contexts, can be 'better'. Ben