We sat at a table in a restaurant. Two young people came in.  They said nothing to one another, but took out their cellphones and spent the next twenty minutes in total silence, poring over emails and texts.  They ordered their food and ate in silence.  No sooner had they finished their meal  than the cellphones reappeared.  In the space of an hour no more than six sentences were exchanged.

This is the brave new world where conversation where “relationships” are pursued by text message, and where no one knows who the other person really is.  Can we expect that actual talking will fade away and that we communicate only by phone?

Epicureans have conversations and genuine friendships, married or no.