Facebook and text messaging are killing off conversation. I've noticed it in my teenage son and his friends and, increasingly, in the generation before them. Getting them to utter more than monosyllabic words is a chore, their missives are short, staccato and pocked with spelling and grammatical errors, and in person, they are shy and impatient, clearly needing to get back to something more important. But take away the face-to-face contact, give them a mobile phone, a tablet or a computer, and they will happily send reams of words - not always coherent or logical, but words nonetheless.
Here is an example, received by e-mail: 'When wl U B hom.' I e-mailed back, wondering what that was meant to be. The reply was, '?' So I phoned my son; the call was not picked up, so I left a voice message. Then another e-mail: 'Home soon?' Having got the gist of what it was all about, I sent off a time and that was that. But it would have been so much quicker, straightforward and less frustrating if I had received a phone call in the first place.