The Dying Art Of Conversation

Thanksgiving is a holiday in the U.S. that few people get excited about. Well, maybe the cook of the meal has anxiety and exhaustion to deal with, but overall it is simply an excuse to gather family for a private gorging on turkey and other goodies and to talk about what has happened in our lives since we all last met the previous Thanksgiving.
Given that I have no family alive now it is mostly a minor holiday for me. The past few years I ate Thanksgiving turkey with a friend and some other friends and acquaintances. He was the organizer of Thanksgiving dinner for a few of the bachelor's, single ladies and some married couples who had no other family members living in this area. But he died two years ago, ending what was becoming a tradition. I am sure the turkey is glad we have stopped that, a reprieve for one once doomed bird. Last year I ate the Thanksgiving meal with my ex wife, her husband and family. I will probably do that again this year.
But why I mention all this is because Thanksgiving Day is one day with a kind of technological ban. Only the most dense or crude guest would use a cell phone at a Thanksgiving gathering. Yep! No cell phones or ipods at the dinner table or in the room where chat is supposed to flow from the mouth, not an electronic device. It is good.
But what do the people talk about when separated from their electronic technology? That is the question I have asked myself the past few years as I notice some people have lost the art of conversation. They have surrendered their identity to their cell phones or whatever device is now their addiction. I guess a decade ago it might have been hard for family members to stay in close touch with each other before they met again for Thanksgiving dinner. But now they stay "in touch" using cell phones, E mail, digital photos or whatever else electronically is out there. I wonder if with those devices we have gotten better or worse in the art of face to face conversation. You can guess my conclusion- we are worse at it in this cell phone age. We are poor communicators face to face.
I think there is a decline in face to face talk because of the ease of connectivity now. We are losing the edge of eye contact, gestures, etc. that we had in the pre electronic eras. People seem to be out of practice in the give and take of conversation. Haha Maybe we might do better conversing with the turkey than with the re acquainted family present Thanksgiving Day, since we are such poor listeners and instead are skilled at talking (to the phone) for talking sake. It's about the noise now, not the depth of conversation. Could it be that eventually we will be so connected to our phones and other devices humans may wind up like the mute monks in a monastery?
I can see it now. Instead of asking aunt Martha to pass the turkey, we will call her on our cell and have the "pass the food" alert sent to her.....I think I will talk to the turkey if that happens.