Anyone out there?

Most of us have had the experience of calling out in a large, empty space only to hear an echo of our own voice coming back to us. Echoes are only possible in certain acoustically-predisposed spaces, which allow the sound waves from our voice to bounce back to our ears with enough delay to be distinct from that which we heard in our heads as we initially spoke.

Hearing an echo of one's own voice is a lonely feeling. Especially if that's all one hears, and no other voice calls back in reply.

Though lonely, I think that there's still a measure of comfort in an echo. It tells you that, somehow, the space into which you spoke is not infinitely empty. There's an end to it, as your own voice coming back to you proves.

I think it's actually scarier, lonelier, when you call out into an empty space... and nothing comes back.

Nothing.



If you call out, and don't even hear your own voice in echo, you wonder... is anyone hearing me at all? Anyone? Am I alone here?

I think the cyber-version of this is messaging someone, whether it be text, voice, I.M., or email, and then ... nothing.

Nothing.



I think cyberspace could use a good echo app. (And I don't mean an email that bounces back "undeliverable.")