AccordingtoNielsen，theaveragenumberofmobilephonecallswemakeisdroppingeveryyear，afterhittingapeakin2007．Andourcallsaregettingshorter：In2005theyaveragedthreeminutesinlength；nowthey'realmosthalfthat．Weare

　　According to Nielsen，the average number of mobile phone calls we make is dropping every year，after hitting a peak in 2007．And our calls are getting shorter：In 2005they averaged three minutes in length； now they're almost half that．

　　We are moving，in other words，toward a fascinating cultural transition：the death of the telephone call．This shift is particularlyplainamong the young．Some college students I know go days without talking into their smartphones at all．

　　This generation doesn't make phone calls，because everyone is in constant，lightweight contact in so many other ways：texting，chatting，and social-network messaging．And we don't just have more options than we used to．We have better ones：These new forms of communication have exposed the fact that the voice call is badly designed．It deserves to die．Consider：If I suddenly decide I want to dial you up，I have no way of knowing whether you're busy，and you have no idea why I'm calling．

　　We have to open Schrödinger's box every time，having a conversation to figure out whether it's OK to have a conversation．Plus，voice calls are emotionally high-bandwidth，which is why it's so weirdly exhausting to be interrupted by one．（ We apparently find voicemail even more torturous：Studies show that more than a fifth of all voice messages are never listened to．）

　　The telephone，in other words，doesn't provide any information about status，so we are constantly interrupting one another．The other tools at our disposal are more polite．Instant messaging lets us detect whether our friends are busy without our annoying them，and texting lets us ping one another but not at the same time．（ Plus，we can spend more time thinking about what we want to say．） Despite the hue and cry about becoming an"always on"society，we're actually moving away from the demand that everyone should be available immediately．

　　We'll still make fewer phone calls，as most of our former phone time will migrate to other