The article introduces the semiotic, cognitive, and technical aspects of the most important trends in the modern written communication, which arise as a result of the competition between acoustic-auditory and manual-visual codes. The author believes that Russian education has to adapt to the contemporary trends in virtual communication, which requires a preliminary research. The problem is that the integral-systemic presentation of communicative content is developing as a result of the growing share of visual data in various types of communication. The school course of Russian is based on elementary strategies and cannot keep up with these changes. Video-clip unites give the visual-written perception much better holistic possibilities than those of the phono-auditory-written channel. The competition of these two forms of writing is unlikely to displace the weaker opposition member. Chances are that it will redistribute their functions based on the advantages of each form.