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A recent article in the New York Times (Cellphones Now Used More for Data Than for Calls ) reported that people are now using their cell phones less for talking than for all the other services these devices now offer – text, e-mail, Internet access, streaming video, music, etc. Voice communication may have been the original purpose of the cell phone, but in 2009, voice data for the first time constituted less than half the traffic on the mobile networks, overtaken by the amount of data in all those other apps we now rely on to keep us connected – and amused – wherever we happen to be.

What’s going on? Why aren’t we talking anymore? More astonishing (at least to me), why are we typing, instead of talking?

According to the Washington-based CTIA, which tracks this stuff, the average number of voice minutes per user in the U.S. has been decreasing for 2 years now. And our phone conversations are getting shorter: In 2008, our local calls averaged almost two and a half minutes; in 2009, they were down to 1.81 minutes. Texting, on the other hand, is very much on the rise. Last year there was a nearly 50 percent increase in the number of text messages sent per user.

Now that our “phones” are web-enabled to perform so many other functions for us, talking has become almost the least of their uses. Instead, we’re using our phones to email, listen to music, watch TV programs we missed, find the location of the nearest Starbucks, check the stock market, post Tweets or updates to Facebook, make lists, track our caloric input and output, or to Google the elusive factoid.

For anecdotal evidence, I need look no further than the #156 LaSalle Street bus. It goes without saying that everyone on my bus has a cell phone. Not so long ago I dreaded sitting next to anyone who had their phone out and at the ready, for fear of having to listen in on yet another conversation of the “I’m-on-the-bus-right-now, where-are-you?” variety. But lately, when I look around, my fellow CTA travelers are all noodling away on their mobile devices. Doubtless many of these same conversations are still taking place, but in silence now, via Tweets. (Far more civil, if you ask me.)

So why are we texting instead of talking? My own best guess is that it’s the nature of our messages. Many of our distance communications now seem to be reducible to quick, short exchanges; for these, we don’t need to talk – and we don’t mind pecking them out on our teeny keyboards or our touchscreens.

But it’s also a matter of how we value time – ours and other people’s. Many of us don’t have the time to talk, to allow ourselves to engage in the dance of the water cooler-type set-up before you get down to the real business of the call. It was voicemail and email that got us accustomed to the convenience of asynchronous communications in the first place: No longer did we need to impose on someone else’s time with an intrusive phone call (or suffer the imposition ourselves when they called us). So it wasn’t much of a leap to instant messaging, to texting. And now, to the real timesaver, microblogging. Why talk at all, when you could be using Twitter to check in, register that update, make that quick comment? Or Facebook, to blast those personal news items out to all your “friends”? Plus you can graze among multiple communications, catching updates from several people at once. It’s multi-tasking at its finest.

Some of it is age-related, too. I for one would not want to be a middle school teacher these days. Instead of passing notes during Elementary Algebra, today’s adolescents are rapid-fire texting each other. (This is true of the middle-aged adolescents during the weekly departmental meeting, too – although their eye-hand coordination may not quite stand up to that of the real adolescents.)

And, let’s face it, text is cheaper than talking (at least for now). Doubtless there are some who feel as if they’re putting one over on the phone company. Every time they punch out a text message instead of making a call, they can convince themselves they’re punching out The Man.

Then there’s the issue of sound quality with voice. Not to mention the dropped calls. Why bother?

For all these reasons, we’re willing to type rather than talk.

And since “phone” is derived from the Greek word for “voice,” there’s every reason now to retire the term and start referring to these indispenable toys generically as “mobile devices.”

Except voice isn’t exactly going away. There are still plenty of distance communications that depend on the reciprocal involvement of their participants. At least in my workplace, this is where the conference call comes into play. We need to discuss the latest project findings with the client, and we’ve got multiple people in the room on both sides of the conversation. Or we’re pitching our services to a prospective client, and we need to hear what they’re looking for and respond to their questions. And there are plenty of one-on-one voice communications taking place, too: updates from our project manager to the client’s project manager, for instance.

But when a client needs a quick answer to a quick question, the chances are they text us or Tweet us – and that we respond likewise, via cell phone.

Excuse me: via mobile device.