Too Many Forms of Communication?

A few months ago I was talking with one of the Elders at my church about the many forms of communication.  We were talking about how students are bombarded with all the different ways they connect with each other.  The conversation was interested because for me there were three basic forms of communication when I was growing up:

1. Phone Calls
2. Postal Service
3. Yelling Downstairs

Most people wouldn't consider the third a real form of communication and since my family didn't have a fax machine I am going to leave that off of the list.

Now here is a list of the many different forms of communication that a high school student has access to:

1. Phone Calls
2. Postal Service
3. Fax Machine
4. Email
5. Facebook
6. Twitter
7. Text Message
8. iMessage
9. iChat
10. Facetime
11. Skype

I am sure that there are some forms I am missing (please feel free to add to the list).  Since we all know that Facebook does not just include your timeline but also messaging and chat that could add a few and Twitter also has direct messaging but it didn't seem right to bolster the list too much.

The interesting thing is that with all these new forms of communication it seems that our society is more disconnected with those around us.  This disconnection means that parents, youth pastors, coaches and teachers have to work all the harder to keep students engaged and feeling they are important in a world that can seem overwhelming to some.  This is where the local youth pastor needs to be able to step in, partner with parents and help out to get students into real relationships.