I talk to a lot of people on any given day, whether in person at work, or through various technological implementations. While back in my day — which was a Tuesday — there were only a couple of methods to communicate with people not in the same room with you…namely the telephone or a written (gasp!) letter, these days we have so many more options. Email, IM, text messaging, Skype, Twitter, Facebook, chat rooms and so much more. I’m finding that, for example, I’m using the actual phone part of my phone so much less and less than texting, instant messaging, email and so on.

This isn’t just a matter of convenience, but actual preference for many. While these new methods of communication allow us to reach out and talk to people easier than ever before, I’ve been thinking about what we lose in these new methods of communication. Do we just lose the nuances of actually talking to a person when using a purely textual method for communication, or is there more we’re losing? I mean besides my concerns over oversharing I’ve already talked about, there are other things I’m worrying about.

I’m concerned that, with more and more of us talking online more often, will we lose the skill of actual conversation in the process? Status updates and blog posts aren’t a conversation, and IM and email are an odd form of conversation that would sound really, really weird if emulated in real life:

Me: Hey buddy…
5 second pause
My Friend: Hey, how are you?
10 second pause
Me: I’m great, how have you been? Haven’t talked to you in ages.
15 second pause
My Friend: I’ve been good. Busy with life and work and everything, but I can’t complain…

And so on. I’m worried that we’re losing verbal communication and conversation skills along the way, which especially becomes apparent when you talk to anyone under twenty these days.

I find that, in my own case, I’ve been using texting and email more than any other form of communication. This isn’t just my choice, though. I know a lot of people who prefer to only talk that way, and don’t like talking on the actual phone.

I can understand this. On IM or email, you can take a second to think about your response before you actually respond, or if you’re feeling particularly dickish, pretend you didn’t see the communique and don’t respond at all. Being on the phone, in “real-time”, puts one more on the spot. While this doesn’t bug me at all, I’ve noticed it seems to bug more and more people lately.

So I wanted to ask all of my (five) readers what they thought, and how they communicated with people these days. Do you also find yourself primarily using textual methods of communication these days, or do you still use vocal communication a lot? Which method of communication do you prefer, and which do your friends seem to prefer? I can’t wait to discuss this with you in the comments and elsewhere.