Actually, I think we are just carrying on the Victorian tradition of letter writing, only in a very immediate time frame. Frequently, strong and lasting friendships were formed during that era, between people who never met.

With the advent of the telephone, we went through a long period, when communication with the written word fell into disuse and the need for literacy, in order to communicate, markedly dimminished.

I think this is great. This brings a higher level of thought and focus into what we are communicating and in time, the ease and fluidity with which we communicate verbally, will combine with the new fluency in the written word. This minor rennaissance may make us feel less like idiots. And in fact, we may become less like idiots. May all our digital dictionaries be leatherbound.