Following in the steps of typewriters and carbon paper...

Over my Christmas vacation, I read a story about the things that are on their way to extinction. No this has nothing to do with climate change and the polar bears, black-footed ferrets or whooping cranes...this extinction is caused by the advances made in technology.

A couple things on the list seemed a little hard to believe. I suppose that's because I'm 50 and I've grown up with them, but young people don't seem to be as enamored by them as were their parents.

The first is the land-line telephone. The writer of the article believes that land-line telephones will be extinct in 10 years.

Now I remember turning 20, graduating from college and landing my first job as a reporter. Along with my first job, came my first apartment and my first phone. At that time, the phone company was a monopoly (Gasp!) and so my new phone was from the Bell telephone company. I rented my phone from them because they didn't sell them in discount stores. That was part of the monopoly deal. However, I couldn't wait to have my own phone because it meant that I would get my name printed in the telephone directory. That was a sign of adulthood...in fact, it was one of the last signs of being an adult since the drinking, voting and every other thing in the world occurred when you were 18 in those days.

Now young people don't seem to want to have their name in the phone book, so they opt for the cell phone. Even some old people don't seem to care because they have given up their land-line phones too.

However, I have adopted the "over my cold body" defense. First, if I don't have my name and number in the telephone book, I won't be bothered by survey companies and telemarketers...and you know how much I like to be called by these two bastions of society. (Actually, the word bastion was originally going to be another another word that sounds like bastion and starts with the same four letters, but I digress).

Now besides land-line telephones, the second thing on the list toward extinction is face-to-face conversation. The author of the article believes that texting (on cell phones) will replace simple, every day conversation.

Now I'm sure that what he writes he believes, because I have seen young people sitting around in the same room texting to each other rather than just talking. But seeing it doesn't make it right.

This past week, I was visited by numerous nieces and nephews along with my in-laws and my brother. You could see that the older people (including myself) enjoyed the friendly banter while the young people looked down at their crotches and continued to text each other.

My brother and I don't know how to text and I don't think we're going to learn. I'm pretty sure the same goes for my dad and my in-laws. So if face-to-face conversations end by the end of the decade, it's not going to be a very fun place for the chatterers among us.

My second grade teacher, Mrs. Cebull, identified me early on as a chatterbox. And let it be known that she was right. I'm the one who will start a conversation in a crowded elevator with a perfect stranger.

But I will not text.

So in the coming years, I will keep my eyes and ears open for land-line telephones and face-to-face conversations to see if they will disappear into history the way carbon paper and typewriters have. Carbon paper has been replaced by copiers and typewriters by personal computers, such as the one I'm typing on today. Here's to a new year and a new decade, but let me keep my phone and my mouth.