Is Body-to-Body Communication Still the Prototype?

Body-to-body communication has widely been accepted as the prototype for mediated communication. This article interrogates the assumption that there is a dividing line between body-to-body and mediated communication. It shows that body-to-body communication intermingles profoundly with forms of mediated communication, to the point that it becomes very difficult to tell them apart. Starting from this framework, it analyzes the great imitative capacity of mediated communication with regard to body-to-body communication, and analyzes how this similarity is destined to grow in time. It concludes that because of these changes, body-to-body communication is an increasingly evanescent prototype.