The purpose of this white paper is to put forth a proposition that technology has not only mediated communication in numerous ways, but that the ways we communicate, including the ways we talk and think about communication, are changing as a result. Mediated by new tools and new technologies that have made the marginal cost of long distance communication essentially free, both work and social activities are commonly shared by groups of people who need not be geographically near each other to be close. The premise of this report is that these and similar trends represent a significant shift in the way we interact with others and in the way we understand the nature of those interactions. The paper focuses on considering ways that communication is changing and raising the question of how this shift can be applied to teaching, learning and creativity. The paper was released in advance of the New Media Consortium (NMC) Online Conference on the Evolution of Communication to spark discussion, discourse, and critical thinking on the topic of the changing nature of communication.