Is the internet a substitute for the telephone?

So I created a blog for family and friends to follow my medical adventures, first with breast cancer and then with all my other medical maladies. It allows me to opine and whine to my heart's content. It also was meant to allow me to communicate my medical crap (that technical word again) to those who I thought should know in away which allowed me not to repeat the same thing again and again. I also get to have some control over how I convey the news - sometimes I don't tell things until I am ready to. Its a tiny bit of control over the chaos of my medical issues.

Some people started reading my blog and stopped. Some people never started reading my blog - some simply don't go on line at home and can't do personal computer things at work, some just don't care to keep up with it, what ever their reason, that's not how they chose to keep up. Some people read my blog regularly, some read it occasionally. What's funny with the people who read my blog regularly, when I hear from them, sometimes I think that they think we have been talking regularly so when we do talk, the conversations are punctuated with 'didn't I tell you that already?' I see the humor in it.

There are people who don't read my blog and we keep up on Facebook as I whine there regularly. I don't know how I survived without FB. I am back in touch with my elementary school friends, as well as college friends, and cancer friends. And relatives are there too. My mother just got on FB to keep up with my cousin, who is spending the summer in Alaska, and her photographs - which she posts weekly when she is actually near an internet site. I am also on LinkedIn and several other online communities. Actually I am on so many online communities I can't keep up unless they send me reminders and updates - or I forget about them. (And how do I keep track of all these passwords - that's another story all together...)

Then there are the people I never hear from - who don't read my blog, don't go on FB,dont go on LinkedIn or other sites, and and never pick up the phone. Are they supposed to be friends? But I digress - that's another story.

But then there is a whole world of people out there who care about me - who I have never met - and who read my blog or stay in touch on FB. They are friends of friends and cancer friends who I connected with on varying online communities. They are friends who I will probably never meet.

But where is the telephone in all this? We know text has replaced phone calls as a means of communication. I don't text much so that doesn't really count for me. But the phone doesn't ring my either. I do get regular phone calls reminding me about doctor appointments and follow up from doctor offices. But I don't talk much on the phone anymore.

Is the internet replacing the telephone in my day to day communication? I think it is. I can communicate with many at once instead of calling one at a time. And then what I do online is waiting for others when they log on. The convenience of the internet vs. leaving voicemail for one person.