Do you find that email and social networking has made you less likely to pick up a phone or go speak to someone in person, and phone calls and live interaction has become somewhat laborous?

Today at work, the receptionist wrote us all emails thanking us for her birthday present. We all, one by one, “replied to all” and told her “you’re welcome.” I was thinking how it’s funny that she sits 20 feet away from all of us, and yet she chooses to communicate by email and so do we. We’re all at our desks, communicating with each other but there is very little speaking to each other. I started thinking about communicating with my personal friends, and how now that we have email and Facebook, we don’t talk on the phone as much, like we did 15–20 years ago.

I remember once recently, I got a phone call from a good friend, and when I saw her number on the Caller ID, I thought “Why is she calling me? Why can’t she just write on FB?”

Do you find that email and social networking has made you less likely to pick up a phone or go speak to someone in person? Have phone calls and live interaction become somewhat laborous in comparison?