Social media has become the primary mode of communication since the advent of the digital era. This has given rise to a concern that face to face communication will fall into obscurity. I profess my disgreement and will explain the nuances behind it in further paragraphs.
Humans are social beings. Our primary mode of communication has been in-person since antiquity. We prefer it because alongside carrying explicit information, we can also express unspoken intents in the form of facial expressions, intonation, body language, et cetera. This variegated and primal approach allows us to form deeper bonds with each other. It allows us to assess the veracity of the information and experience it more richly.
Communicating via the internet or text messages loses much of this context. Though it balances the scale by offering extreme convenience and flexibility that is intrinsically unavailable in direct communication. This has serious implications in the economic sector as it tremendously faciliates business negotiations and logistics. It even helps connect people with faraway friends and families. However, if relied on extensively, it will slowly isolate a person from making sturdy social connections and impair them for the traditional way of communicating. Studies show that forgoing face to face communication for communicating via internet leads to depression and also hampers one physiologically as it doesnot fulfill our biological need.
In conclusion, I donot believe face to face communication will be effaced by the increasing preference given to internet. Both have fields of strengths, and it will be difficult for a nascent technology to replace something we have evolved to have for over millions of years.