Phones Aren't For Talking

I was reading an article in a magazine last night and I came to a realization that most people probably understood years ago.  Phones are not for talking anymore.  As a 28 year old I am still fairly young, but I can remember very clearly the times before cell phones were so commonplace.  It doesn't seem like it should be possible, but I can remember back to before everybody had their own email address.  It hasn't been all that long ago that the only way you could communicate with somebody was to talk to him, and he had to be at his house, or you had to be standing right next to him.

Face to face conversation has always been, and always will be the most meaningful form of communication.  Now with Apple's front-facing camera on the iPhone, that experience can be somewhat duplicated on a mobile device. It still has a little ways to go. The most synchronous and pure form of communication will probably always be two people, in the same place, talking back and forth.  As a society we have always had the desire and the need to communicate at a distance. Back in the day one's options were limited.  A letter could be written, transported over several days, at which time the letter would be read and responded to.  This is one of the most asynchronous forms of communication that we could ever imagine.  In striving to shorten this gap we got the pony express to speed up the delivery of letters. Later we had the telegraph, the first form of the text message.  Then came the wonderful invention of the telephone.  This gave us instant information, and allowed humans to interact across distances in the most synchronized fashion possible.  This was such a good technology, look how long it has remained the communication medium of choice.