I think the best distinction might be found in the phrase, "with it." You know how today we speak of being with it... meaning we've understood completely, we've got the message as it were....in every way possible. But in the older book or print culture people weren't with it....they were away from it....by themselves with their own private point of view. You have no point of view when you're with it...because you accept a thing totally. And we're with it because these new media of ours....the ones you talked about in the appliance store....have made our world into a single unit....the world is now like a continually sounding tribal drum, where everybody gets the message....all the time. A princess gets married in England and boom boom boon go the drums and we all hear about it; an earthquake in North Africa, a Hollywood star gets drunk....away go the drums again. I use the word tribal...probably the key word.