Many users will not wait more than a few seconds for content to load online. Anything longer than this breeds great frustration.
In the realm of person-to-person interaction, however, the rules appear to change. Boredom is often replaced by anticipation. With the ellipsis, hesitation in response is indicated visually, and in real time, with interlocutors left to speculate on each other’s motives.
Dialogue online therefore exists in a form of space-time discontinuum.