Modern Communication Methods

I have 'sues. Big, red, floppy clown 'sues with modern day communications methods.  We tweet, text, IM, email but we seldom seem to pick up the phone for some human contact before we fire off some form of electronic communication.
Now, don't get me wrong.  Sometimes it is the only way to get to a person is to drop an email or an IM.  But it shouldn't be the only way.  I seem to be surrounded by people who are hooked on their crackberries and iPhone (disclaimer: I own an iPhone) as a way to keep in touch without interaction.  They rather type a thousand characters than 7 digits on the telephone for a simple conversation.

As human beings, we take a lot of our cues from interaction.  We deduce how a person is doing through body language, tone of voice or facial expression.  In the electronic world we have none of that.  The tone of a text, tweet or email can easily misconstrued unless there is a intimate familiarity with the sender or recipient.

While the advent of modern communication methods is cleaner than messenger pigeons, we lose a lot in translation.