Pick Up the Phone

Social media, communication services, and mobile applications have changed the communication landscape significantly. This has even gotten the attention of researchers because many of the changes are affecting the way we live and do business. We are able to connect with each other more but there is much less interaction that is face to face. The number of text messages sent monthly in the U.S. exploded from 14 billion in 2000 to 188 billion in 2010. As a result, a whole generation is rapidly losing the social grace necessary to conduct calls. Their reasoning makes sense, at least to them - why talk on the phone when it's so easy to text/email/Hangout/Snapchat/Facebook Message. I have to admit that even I have thought along those lines when talking on the phone was feeling like a chore. What would happen in the internet went down? Would chaos break out and you would have scenes like from the Purge? It begs the question, how in the world did people survive before being online? They had to, wait for it, actually talk to other people and look them in the eye. These days, it seems like people have social issues when someone talks to them in person or calls them on the phone.