The following Instant Message exchange is based on actual events. Screen names have been changed to protect the innocent and incompetent, respectively.

Byline55: Good Morning David, are you awake?

Dave4eva: hi dad sup?

Byline55: How did you know it was me? I just created myself a new identity.

Dave4eva: ur the only one who uses caps and commas

Byline55: Oh sorry. And, by the way, instead of saying “caps” you should say “upper case.”

Dave4eva: k

Byline55: Is that short for OK?

Dave4eva: wtf

Byline55: Excuse me?

Dave4eva: never mind.

Byline55: K.

Dave4eva: wat do u want anyway

Byline55: Mom and I want to know if you are coming downstairs for breakfast this morning.

Dave4eva: lol

Byline55: Is that a No?

Dave4eva: that would be correct sir

Byline55: Are you being sarcastic now?

Dave4eva: duh dad!

Byline55: Very good use of punctuation.

Dave4eva: n1

Byline55: What?

Dave4eva: nice one

Byline55: Thank you.

Dave4eva: you mean thnq

Dave4eva: or thx

Dave4eva: or 10q

Dave4eva: or TU

Dave4eva: somy

Byline55: ???

Dave4eva: sick of me yet?

Byline55: Not at all, this is fun. Are you sure you won’t come downstairs for breakfast? We’re having pancakes.

Dave4eva: kk . . . b down in like 30 minits

Byline55: There’s a great article in the Sunday newspaper I want you to read. This pitcher took a no-hitter into the ninth inning late last night in Seattle, and it sounds like it was a real heartbreaker.

Dave4eva: saw the vid alredy on youtube

Byline55: How did you know about this so soon? The game didn’t get over until after midnight.

Dave4eva: josh im’d me last night.

Byline55: How did he know?

Dave4eva: stw ... Search The Web ... get it???

Byline55: That’s pretty funny. We used to say RTFM.

Dave4eva: read the f***ing manual

Byline55: Right! How did you know that?

Dave4eva: 404

Byline55: ?

Dave4eva: 404 is like saying i dont know

Byline55: I get it, similar to the “404 Not Found” error message you see on a computer, right? Did you know there’s a rumor that 404 is actually a room number at CERN, the place in Switzerland where the World Wide Web was born?

Dave4eva: fascinating ;-)

Byline55: Anyway, my son, I am going to return to my printed newspaper and my pancakes, and engage in a real face-to-face conversation with your beautiful pajama-clad mother now.

Dave4eva: u r so lame

Byline55: Thnq. I love you. Bye.

Dave4eva: ok bi

Byline55 signed off at 09:35 Sun.

Dave4eva: ILU2 dad

Eventually, the aroma of frying bacon coaxed my son, David, downstairs and into the kitchen. With the exception of a few select fashion magazines, smell is the only sense not currently stimulated by any print, online, broadcast, or mobile media.

I even convinced my son to read the article I was talking about. The sportswriter gave an excellent account of the game, and in each paragraph you could feel the tension mounting as the innings wore on. When the pitcher surrendered a bloop single with one out in the ninth, the reporter’s words vividly captured the disappointment emanating from every player on that field.

Sure, I wish I could have stayed awake to watch the game unfold live. But, night games in Seattle don’t mix very well with East Coast time zones, cold beer, reclining lounge chairs, and warm summer nights in front of the TV. I usually just about make it through the National Anthem on such evenings. And, for the life of me, I can’t figure out how to work our Tivo, even though everyone tells me it has the best, most intuitive user interface on the planet.

I also would like to have seen the game’s video clip on YouTube. But, that seems a little like watching a movie after you’ve read the book, and I wonder if the impact of the story would have been the same.

As for David, he actually read the whole article and said, “It didn’t suck,” which I am sure was a great compliment coming from the mouth of a 12-year-old.

He even looked over my shoulder as I called up the story on the paper’s Web site and sent a comment to the writer praising her on the “emotional crescendo” of her piece. This elicited nothing more than a classic eye-roll/barf-noise combination from the tween-aged bundle of angst at my side.

There’s an awful lot of discussion these days about the decline of the daily newspaper, about its irrelevance to “the younger generation,” and about how kids are drawn to more immediate, more social and more collaborative media. Without question, people of different age groups consume their media differently. And, although it’s a “duh” observation to make, online content delivery will always be more immediate than print.

Major newspaper groups are already realizing this. Earlier this year, the Los Angeles Times decided to turn latimes.com into its primary channel for breaking news 24 hours a day.

By contrast, Times editor James O’Shea announced that the print edition will “strike a more thoughtful pose, becoming a vehicle for tightly written context, analysis, interpretation and expertise.”

My family anecdote would indicate that the strategy adopted by the Times — and a growing number of publishers — is indeed on target. Mix in a few other communication channels like instant messaging and blogging, and we might actually be able to close the media generation chasm by a centimeter or two.

But in the meantime, let’s take care to heed the advice of scientist Joseph Priestley (he discovered oxygen in 1774), who provided this sage piece of wisdom: “The more elaborate our means of communication, the less we communicate.”

‘K?

Peter Marsh is chief integration officer at Atex Group Ltd. He can be reached at pmarsh@us.atex.com