Will I ever swoon to the sound of his voice again?

Video is given the blame for killing the radio star.  Is it possible that technology has killed dating, relationships, friendships and overall communication between humans?  This has been a topic of discussion since the days of the beeper, through the Motorola 2 way pagers and right up to now with email and text messaging.  Social media like Facebook and Twitter have added uncomfortable icing on the cake of communicating in the technology era that has made me wonder if I will ever flutter from the sound of his voice again or am I forever relegated to feeling butterflies from the series of emoticons he sends?

For the purpose of full disclosure, I am a texter.  I use text messaging to communicate with people at times when talking on the phone just isn’t appropriate or feasible.  At the same time, I manage to use all the minutes allocated on my phone plan and thousands more that are unlimited.  I find a balance of using texting and talking on the phone in most of my relationships.  There are some people I only text once in a while, some people that I text all day and then talk to on the phone once I am free to do so and some other people who I only text all day, all night, all weekend, all the time!  I personally have no feeling about text messaging, I don’t take a text as a personal slight nor do I feel it somehow distinguishes how important I am to you if you send me a text versus calling.  I also am a person who thrives in silence and only likes to talk when I want to talk.  Texting affords me that option.  But I know that there are some people who feel quite strongly about being communicated with via text, they find it impersonal, unclear and generally a bad mode, especially if that is the singular mode by which communication occurs.  I can understand that feeling, even though it isn’t one I share. 

Texting and emailing lacks the human emotion that is imperative to effective communication.  If left unchecked, communication without the human emotion becomes pointless.  Eventually it is taken less seriously until the act of texting simply becomes a habit rather than a deliberate act of communication.  This is especially disastrous when you are getting to know someone.  You need that time to learn how they communicate when they are being funny, when they are being coy, when they are being sarcastic or when they are being sweet.  You need to hear how they react to your attempts at humor and sarcasm.  You need the immediateness of verbal or in person communication in order for people to be held accountable for what they say, something that usually forces people to censor themselves (often correctly) in a way they may not otherwise do from behind the safety of a keyboard. 

Texting and emailing have their rightful place in our ever busy lives.  It helps us to remain connected when we wouldn’t be able to be otherwise.  It also creates a false sense of connection when there is none and allows people to appear connected to several people at a time while they sit face to face connected to what is actually happening in real life.  Email specifically allows us to have uninterrupted one way conversations, saying any and everything we want to say without any response from our intended target.  Yet again it restricts our censorship ability.  Pros and cons are present for both sides of this argument.  But if video really killed the radio star, then we need to get handle of this form of technology before it kills key aspects of every meaningful relationship we seek to maintain.