Except for in-person, speech-based communication, it could be argued that all communication is technologically based. With the advent of written language -- itself a kind of technology -- humanity experimented with varying forms of technology to record their thoughts. From the stone tablet to parchment to the printing press to computers, our methods of written communication have continued to change, although several remain in use simultaneously.

Similarly, we've come a long way from Edison's inventions of the phonograph and telegraph in the 1870s and Alexander Graham Bell's invention of the telephone in 1876. Yet many of us still use telephones as well as cell phones, even though the latter has been in use on a broad scale for more than 20 years (thankfully having slimmed themselves down along the way).

In many respects, with the proliferation of communications technologies, it increasingly falls to each individual to choose with which of these technologies he or she will engage. After all, it's not as if there is a shortage of technological gadgetry out there for the using. In our age of abundance, it's as much of a philosophical choice as a practical or economic one. And for all of the hype of each new innovation within communications technologies, old, or "legacy," technologies still persist. A massive amount of data is transmitted through fiber optic cables and stored on hard drives, yet older tape drives and even-older telephone wires still have their uses. Mechanical technologies can remain as useful, or cheap, as electronic technologies. At the same time, communicating through an old technology -- say, by sending a letter through snail mail -- now produces a sense of nostalgia, or, as the case may be, impatience, in some people. That can be its own benefit, and a reason for looking to the past.