Resumen de Wherever Two or More Are Networked. The Dialectic of Presence and Absence in Online Encounters

Stephen Okey

• This paper argues for the concept of “digitally mediated presence” as a way of articulating online encounters. Employing theologian Brian Robinette’s work on the Resurrection, embodiment, and the dialectic of presence and absence as well as communications professor Heidi Campbell’s research on online religious communities, the paper argues that digital technology can convey a person’s attention, recognition, and concern for the other despite a lack of physical proximity. While this mode of presence is different from physically mediated presence, it is nonetheless embodied and can constitute an encounter with the real presence of the other.