Bet that title got you all wondering!
What I'm thinking, is that in 20 years, possibly even sooner, people will have stopped talking to each other altogether? The reason I say this, is that in talking to my DD last night, she was telling me about a situation that had occurred between her and one of her adult children, which had made her really cross. She explained that the conversation had all taken place via text, and I tried as gently as I could, to suggest that perhaps, as has happened between myself and her, there had been a misunderstanding on one or both of their parts, and that maybe she would be better to call or FaceTime, so as to discuss the matter properly. She cut me down by saying 'Mother, no one phones anyone these days, all communication is done by text, I bet even you don't phone people any more?' I admitted that she's partly right, in as much as I do tend to email more than text, due to us living in an area where the mobile signal is poor, but the reason I email is because in the days of landlines, you never knew if you were going to catch someone in the middle of something, ie, a bath, cooking dinner, or even having sex. So nowadays if it's something related to business, or just a relatively unimportant thing, I email so that I know the person I want to talk to, will get the message at their convenience. However, if it's a friend, I will often email in order to arrange a good time to have a chat, either by phone, FaceTime or Messenger.
Tonight I've been on MN, and someone was saying they'd made arrangements to have friends round, but was worried that they weren't going to come, as she hadn't pinned down a time when making the arrangements, and they hadn't responded to her texts. Lots of people were saying just call them, but when I said I felt that people just don't seem to want to actually speak to each other any more, again I was told that if someone doesn't answer your text, it's because they don't want to, and they're busy making an excuse to let you down, so you don't call them due to pride!!
I'm sure most of us have also seen couples, or even complete families out in restaurants, not actually talking to each other any more, but all with their eyes glued to their phones, and I wouldn’t doubt that if asked, a lot of parents would say that they would have to surgically amputate, to get a phone off of their kids.
So, having explained the reason for my question, I'm just wondering how many of you still prefer to talk to friends, either by phone or video call, or whether these younger people are right, and that no one actually talks to anyone any more, and, if you agree that this is true, do you think that it’s a good thing? Personally, I hate it, but maybe I am as old fashioned as my daughter told me I was!!
