This rant about digital-era etiquette is mainly just a roundabout way for the author and his peers to congratulate themselves on being cutting-edge and oh-so-terribly important. The only interesting part to me was the recurring use of phrases like time-wasting, cost, burden, cheap, faster. It’s like he’s been reading relationship advice columns written by efficiency consultants. I mean, I’m as taciturn and private as the next hermit, but I don’t expect my standards to apply across the board. Sure, some people are thoughtless and imposing. Some people don’t know how to shut up, in speech or in text. But some people innocently assume that personal familiarity includes at least a little “pointless” chatter, and even I wouldn’t begrudge them that.
Inefficiency in personal interaction will always be with us for the same reason that irrationality will: because life isn’t a problem to be solved neatly with no remainder.