Compression seems to be central to how humans communicate both effectively (i.e., in a way that has the desired impact) and efficiently (i.e., with reduced effort).
Poetry as compression
I once took a writing course from Venkatesh Rao of Ribbonfarm.com, and one of the big takeaways for me was that the various parts of a written work can be thought of as "the entirety at different levels of compression."
Text of an entire book = least compressed
Chapters = locally compressed
Book title = most compressed
The art of title-writing is the poetry of compression: how to say the whole thing in the most elegant and compressed way.
Social media as compression
Social media — at least insofar as it relates to spreading information — seems to develop in the direction of increased compression:
People left Facebook for Twitter when they realized political rants can be compressed into 140 characters.
People left Twitter for TikTok when they realized a graduate seminar can be compressed into a 30-second video.
The popularity of memes also relates to compression — it’s usually far more effective and efficient to convey a complex mix of emotions and circumstances by sending a hierogif everybody recognizes, than to describe them anew.
Christianity as Compression
Christians believe that God — the Logos, the eternal and infinite essence of Being itself — compressed himself in his Entirety into one man, Jesus Christ.
Catholics (and all Christians for the first 1500 years of Christianity) believe he compressed himself even further — into the Eucharist — making his divinity not merely communicable, but literally digestible, even to illiterate peasants.
Perhaps this is one (of many) reason it’s blasphemous to receive the Eucharist unworthily: because to do so distorts the message, and makes this infinitely efficient and effective communication, itself incommunicable.
If you dull your senses to the ultimate communicator, bearing the ultimate message, through the ultimate medium — how much more must your senses consequently become dulled to lesser communicators, bearing lesser messages, through lesser mediums?