The dying art of conversation – has technology killed our ability to talk face-to-face?

What with Facetime, Skype, Whatsapp and Snapchat, for many people, face-to-face conversation is used less and less often.

• Melanie Chan
• The Conversation

These apps allow us to converse with each other quickly and easily – overcoming distances, time zones and countries.

We can even talk to virtual assistants such as Alexa, Cortana or Siri – commanding them to play our favourite songs, films, or tell us the weather forecast.

Often these ways of communicating reduce the need to speak to another human being.

This has led to some of the conversational snippets of our daily lives now taking place mainly via technological devices.

So no longer do we need to talk with shop assistants, receptionists, bus drivers or…

• The dying art of…