The purpose of the word old-fashioned is to label what is obsolete, which isn't good. The only time we like hearing old-fashioned is before ice cream . The phone has become old-fashioned, unless you use any other function on the device except the phone itself. It is now more common to hear the phrase, "Text me on my phone" than "Call me on my phone." But let's talk about what is really obsolete. Obsolete refers to something that is no longer efficient or useful. Why make a phone call when text or e-mail are faster? The belief is that talking on a phone is obsolete; except that it is not.

Take setting up a meeting. Nine times out of ten, what usually takes at least five e-mail exchanges can be accomplished in one two-minute phone call; a more productive use of time. More importantly however, things happen during a conversation that are impossible with text or e-mail. Questions arise, last minute ideas pop up that could affect the content of the meeting or change how the participants prepare for it. With conversation, not only is the process shorter, but the outcome is better. In this case, isn't it e-mail that is obsolete?

A manager once told me, "I like to use text and e-mail because it allows the other person to respond at their convenience." I replied, "When you make a phone call, they still have that same option." Even having to leave a voice-mail is less obsolete than text or e-mail because your voice conveys attitude and intent in ways that electronic communication cannot. Why do you think so many people over-use exclamation points in e-mail? It is because they know that text on a page is devoid of emotion. They feel compelled to add something, even those little emoticons (that I hate), to bring personality to a lifeless form of communication. I once called a younger employee on her cell phone and she answered with, "Why are you calling me on this?" I said, "Because it is a PHONE." After a brief pause she said, "I'm not really comfortable with conversation." She doesn't work for us anymore.

"I write. I don't process words" is a quote from the movie Love and Death on Long Island in which an aged author is asked by college students why he still used a typewriter instead of a word processor. His response illustrates another failing of excessive texting; instant communication leads to less intelligent communication. Electronic communication calls for using the fewest characters possible to convey the message. Pretty soon you really aren't communicating at all; you are simply distributing information. In a bizarre twist of circumstances, humans have become subservient to the devices we invented to serve us.

Language is a skill that develops our intellect; cross-connecting centers of the mind and fostering higher brain function. Texting fosters higher thumb function. Not only does texting extinguish the spark of language, it diminishes vocabulary. Words that we use in spoken dialogue are eliminated from texting because they take too much time. The result is that the American style of language has lost its color. Conversations in the colonial era were flavored with fortuitous, perspicuity, and loquacious. If you used any of these words today, you would be labeled as snooty instead of intelligent.

After submitting my first book to a publisher years ago, I was told that it needed to be re-written. The publishing company scanned the book with a software program that compared my vocabulary and sentence structure with that of different levels of education. Their standard for publishing any work was that at least 90% of the book must be written at no higher than an eighth grade level. My book was rated at 67%. I was less upset at being turned down for publication than I was at discovering that so much of my book was written at the junior high school level.

Because of the two predominant means of electronic communication in use today, society's skill in the subtle art of communication is getting progressively worse. With it goes the ability to use language that engages, persuades, and inspires. I hope I have made myself clear; it is kind of hard given the limitations of the printed word.

Stevie Ray is a nationally recognized corporate speaker and trainer, helping companies improve communication skills, customer service, leadership, and team management.  He can be reached at www.stevierays.org or stevie@stevierays.org.

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