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According to an article in today's Washington Post, phone calls are a dying breed. Now, if you don't text, you're history.

Not that phone calls are completely dead -- but they're frequently supplanted by text messages. Sometimes the text messages are simply a check-in ("Can I call you?"). Sometimes they're a supplement ("Snding U email now"). And sometimes, they're all you're gonna get, baby.

The reasons are interesting.

Some people don't want to talk to you. They're just doing a data dump. Don't need to hear your voice. (I haven't done that. But I have called people in a way that the call went directly to their voice mail, bypassing the need to actually talk to them.)

Some people simply don't want to interrupt you. Text messages don't demand an immediate response. (I know, tell that to a parent whose child texts incessantly.)

Some people don't want to have to respond immediately. Text messages will wait. The article points out that this concept is essentially the same as an answering machine -- you return the calls you want, when you want.

Some people want the control that texting gives you -- choose your words, choose your time to send.

Some people simply don't like the confrontational method of phone calls -- in their minds, the caller is demanding that you stop what you're doing and pay attention to them. Something to that, I think. How often do we get mad when we hear keying in the background as we're talking to someone?

And some simply don't want to expend the psychic energy to talk.

Good thing this is in text - otherwise, nobody might see it.