Let your fingers do the talking

"He's an honest man - you could shoot craps with him over the telephone."

                                                                                        --Earl Wilson

Just as there aren't many crap games being played over the phone, there apparently isn't much talking, either.

So says Pamela Paul in last Saturday's New York Times, pointing out: "In the last five years, full-fledged adults have seemingly given up the telephone — land line, mobile, voice mail and all. According to Nielsen Media, even on cellphones, voice spending has been trending downward, with text spending expected to surpass it within three years."

She goes on to present some anecdotal evidence of the trend including one publicist -- traditionally a phone-addicted occupation -- whom she quoted as saying, “You pretty much call people on the phone when you don’t understand their e-mail.” 

For efficiency's sake, this is all well and good. Concise language and a well-turned phrase can get the job done quickly and effectively. A text message demands even greater brevity and a working knowledge of  shorthand and code words that cram a great deal of information into 140 characters or fewer.

Still, there are times when there is no match for the inflection and sound of the human voice. As Benjamin Disraeli declared, "There is no index of character so sure as the voice."