Breaking News: texting kills comm major

Many of you who know me, may already know that I suck at texting. Maybe it's that I only get a limited number a month and therefore don't text as often as some(sometimes intentionally). Maybe it's my personal vendetta against excessive texters. However it is this journalist's opinion that texting is the source of the slow painful death of interpersonl communication in our culture.
Do I understand the occasional text when you are not in a position where you are able to call someone? Sure. Do I get that sometimes it's just easier to send someone a quick text. Yes. Do I understand the people who use it as their only medium of communication. No.
Texting has taken over our lives. Some no longer even like to call their friends anymore. All they do is text. To me texting is so much more impersonal. Yes it can be made personal by what you type etc, but it has become a crutch to our culture and quite frankly it bothers me.
If I have learned one thing as a communication studies student, it is that good interpersonal communication skills are important no matter what field you go into. Business, science, music, even accountants all have to interact with people in some capacity and our generation is losing the ability to communicate with each other because of texting.
I understand that this does not apply to everyone, however I routinely ask people to call me, one, because I think it is easier and less time consuming. Two, because it is clear and easier to understand. Three, because is more personal because you can hear the other person's voice.
I love my friends very much and getting to talk to them is one of my favorite things. It means that I get to have a conversation with them and that I want to talk to them personally.
I do not have a problem with the principle of texting, seeing as I do in fact text from time to time. Really its the people who have deep intense conversations over texting that bother me. I have had this happen to me, where I am talking to someone and they pause to text a friend but apologize to me for doing so but they say it was necessary because they are in the middle of a "deep intense conversation" with their other friend. If that is the case, then neither party is that focused on the conversation at hand, so how can it be that meaningful? I would hold that it means less to text someone than to call them and make the effort to hit the send button than fidget around on your phone's keypad.
While searching through facebook fan pages I found pages advocating for texting and found all sorts of comments on the pages about how people "hate calling people" and "only use calling as a last resort." I think my favorite may have been the one that said "I asked a girl out, but she was too shy to text back." Seriosuly, if this guy was too shy to have the guts to call this girl up and ask her out properly and she was too shy to even text back, neither of them deserve a relationship. What would an actual relationship be like between two such people I wonder?
The art of interpersonal communication is dying a slow and painful death even though no one knows it yet. It's rather akin to the story about the frog who was boiled alive without realizing what was happening until it was done. If we keep sacrificing our interpersonal skills, then we are going to lose them before we know it.
So go ahead. Be brave.
PICK UP THE PHONE.
People aren't that scary to talk to. I promise.