Although we cannot exist without communicating, there is no communication without moments of its absence. We are liable to experience misunderstandings, uncertainty, or ambiguity whenever we speak to others. This is where the hard fact of otherness arises. This otherness constitutes a complex, exhilarating challenge, both for human experience and social reality. It cannot be overcome by the technological tools that today are nearly always at our disposal. This is because information and communication technologies (ICTs) divide us just as much as they unite us, in spite of the promises made in so many “techno-discourses.” Indeed, the virtues of the ubiquity and proximity of digital technology are extolled at a massive scale in the hypermodern era. The language of presence and proximity speaks volumes about an age dominated by the fear of emptiness, aimlessness, and uncertainty. Interpersonal technology is thus looked to as a means of alleviating absence.
However, the impression of being in close virtual contact with one another does not address the distance that always separates us from the Other. Paradoxically, this is where we experience the richness of coexistence, which encourages us to constantly appreciate the differences in meaning that arise when we communicate. In the end, meanings rarely coincide, and the risk of misunderstanding is always present. Distance is an undeniable feature of human experience and its flavor. Emmanuel Levinas underscores this ethical dimension of existence when he considers the disparities present in any interpersonal interaction…