These days, are 80 percent of your phone conversations rushed, choppy, awkward social disasters? Or is it just me?

I'm not sure people are getting worse in face-to-face communication thanks to the dominance of e-mail and other e-communications, but I do think we are losing the ability to talk graciously and gracefully and productively on the phone.

I've never liked the phone; you and your conversant have to react to one another in real time with the benefit of only one stimulus—sound.

And now that everybody sucks at it, I like it even less.

How about you?