Interactivity is critical to the communication process and, ironically, the aspect which communication technologies have had the least success in implementing. Beyond the hype, the real promise of the Net as a communication technology may be in its ability to capture and even amplify this dimension.

The more consumers are willing to send information about themselves 'upstream', the better it is for those companies in a position to exploit such information. Thus, approaches to new media that celebrate the progressive aspect of interactivity run the danger of co-optation by marketing strategies that appeal to the democratic potential of the internet.