Communication~A Lost Art

Most of my posts are crafty in nature, but today I'm feeling the need to be opinionated.  I thought that I would share.
Remember when we were kids, and we'd play outside all day, just come home for a bathroom break and a snack?  We'd yell, and holler throughout the neighborhood all day long.  Kick the can, War, Tag, Whiffle Ball, whatever.  We even had a neighbor with a huge dirt pile in his backyard that let us dig for worms.  We didn't go fishing, we just dug for worms.  Weird, but we were kids!  We got dirty, really dirty.  We'd rather go to a public pool with our friends than my in ground pool, where my parents might be.  Can you imagine the embarrassment?  After dinner, when playtime was done, the Mom's in the neighborhood each ran a bell signaling the end of day, bath & bed time.  Life was good, it was easy, we were kids.  We had no worries, no cares, other than just to be kids. 
I dropped my kids off at school and saw a lady pushing her baby in a stroller, cute right?  Not really she was on her cell phone blabbing away, not even noticing that her kid had almost completely undressed from the shoes to the waist.  Then after my oldest got done field hockey practice, we drove home.  There were no kids playing outside.  No noise.  I can only guess, kids just don't play anymore.
When did we stop paying attention?  When did we stop talking?  When did the communication die?
I'm the first to admit it, I LOVE CALLER ID!  I can chose not to pick up the phone when I see someones name I really ain't in the mood to talk to at that moment.  Call waiting caller ID, GENIUS!  But you see my friends, this is where I draw the line.
The incessant texting, and emailing and sheer lack of talking bothers me.  I'm a talker ya see, I LOVE TO TALK!  I want to talk to a person not a machine.  I want human interaction, not a freakin' beep!  My cell phone doesn't ring, it quacks!  Really?!  Are we that emotionally separated from each other that we've resorted to quacking?
I still make, see MAKE my kids HAND WRITEN THANK YOU NOTES!  I said it!  Call Child Protective Services, I am mean.  They are grateful, polite kids, why you ask?  Because that how I raised 'em, that's how I was raised.  I say please and thank you.  I ask if there is anything I can bring when I'm invited somewhere, and when they say no, I bring something anyway! 
People say kids today are rude, self centered and entitled.  Yes, some are, absolutely, I even know some, but I blame their parents.  You reap what you sow people.  Apple not far from the tree, get the analogies here?  It's time we take back the communication and get back to business!  Demand your kids TALK to you, not text, teach them the art of a thank you note, go to the post office and show them what a stamp looks like, turn off the  TVs and play outside. 
We're only here for a short time, are you really going to lie on your deathbed and wish that you would have sent a text of the You Tube laughing babies to all your "friends" on Facebook?  Oh yeah, when they get the text their phone will quack.  Think about it...