Talk to me! Talk to you? Guess not...

I just received 3 text messages from a friend of mine. And I sent her responses to each of those messages.

Once I finished writing the last one out I got to thinking. Have we become so used to non-verbal communication (which inevitably takes up more time than verbal) that we avoid talking to each other?

How much more difficult is it to pick up the phone and call a friend on their birthday, instead of texting her/him?

Is it really that much easier to send an IM to a colleague who doesn't sit too far away, instead of strolling by?

I understand that sometimes due to work we have to stay at our desks/posts/latrines, or for any other reason, but have we really gone so far as to eliminate sociability?

This depresses me a bit, especially since I do exactly all these things that I'm complaining about.

Granted I do prefer to pick up the phone or get up and away from my desk to talk to someone. I just feel that there's a better dialogue when you can look someone in the face, or listen to their voice. But I'm still guilty.

Online Social systems inevitably promote this state of affairs a bit, since it's wholly virtual, but they do it on a much more social level, and across all of the globe.

I just hope that we don't lose all of our contact. There's just something nicer about talking than texting.