The way I see it, modern technology has done nothing to improve family communication. When my mother was living, I spoke with her on the phone for at least an hour or so every week, even if I was going to see her in person. When life got crazy, and we hadn't communicated recently, one of us would pick up the phone and make that connection.

Now, we carry phones in our pockets. We spend time on our computers with email, instant messaging, chat, and social media sites. Many of us have Twitter accounts. But, we still don't seem to talk to each other much, unless we are actually with each other in a physical location.

My oldest son almost never initiates contact with his mother or me. Even when we text him, he uses one word replies. If we want to know what's going on with him, our texts have to be lists of questions. His responses will be like this one from just the other day: Yes. Great. No. No. No idea.

You might ask why I don't just pick up the phone and call him. Well, that doesn't work. My only successful tactic is to text "Call me ASAP!" and hope for the best. The younger folks just don't understand how much parents worry.