In an interview published this month in Vogue magazine, Katie Perry revealed that her now ex-husband Russell Brand told her he wanted a divorce via a text message. Similarly, Real Housewives of Atlanta cast member, Porsha Stewart, revealed that she was told that her husband, NFL player Kordell Stewart, wanted a divorce via Twitter.

Reading about the use of text messaging and social media to communicate such private matters, reminded me of a conversation I recently overheard between my daughter and step-son. Sydney was clearly apprehensive about being so far from Ryan-they are very close- when they leave for college in August. Teasingly, in response to her concern, Ryan told her he would tweet her once a day and maybe send her a text message here and there. Picking up on the joke, Sydney started to negotiate the number of tweets, text messages, Facebook, and Instagram messages they would exchange daily. What I found interesting in their banter was their failure to mention actually speaking to one another.

Here's my quetion from all of this, in a world wherein we have so many different ways to communicate with one another have we lost the ability to actually speak to one another?