The Art of Conversation is, like, kinda dead and stuff...

So,
I was at the gym the other day, again, and I was watching the TV there, again (though for some reason the last few weeks the audio for the TV hasn't been working, it's just all static, so I have to rely on my iPod to drown out the rap music on the stereo and focus really hard on the subtitles...)
Anywho,
saw another commercial that made me angry. Had nothing to do with food this time, but it still fell in the same vein of our society today, crunching many things into a little bit of time and also just the disconnection of everyone. It was for some sort of cell phone, the Samsung 4G or something, I think. Part of their shpeel was that you could be face to face with someone, without actually being there, face to face, the scene showed a guy and girl sitting at a table talking, then transition into the guy holding his phone with the girl's face on the phone during a video chat, etc.
Now, this commercial reminded me of an article I read in the Boston Globe the other day, about how these days we are all super connected by technology and that the newest type of pining is longing for you cell phone to receive a text message. The article then launched into long distance relationships and how they work much differently these days, but also how technology can hinder them as well as help, e.g. you send a text message and it is not replied to right away, what is the other person doing?!
So, back to this TV commercial, you can now be face to face with someone without actually being there, blah blah blah.
Well, the first thing that popped into my head was that scene from Wall-E when there are two guys on their little hover-chairs talking to each other via video, but they're floating right next to each other as well. Also, the scene where Mary's video screen goes away and she's actually seeing where they live for the first time, since her whole life has been lived through that screen.
Is this where we are headed?

That in mind, a friend of mine recently posted a FB status saying something along the lines of "Does anyone ever have real conversations anymore?" since our daily lives are all wrapped up in texts and comments and "likes" (if you have a facebook that is, I do know quite a few people without them)
In any case, I responded to said FB comment with this link
It seemed fitting.