单项选择题

Is new technology damaging our ability to communicate Fingers flying, we can blog, e-mail, or enter chat rooms. But, as we type billions of words, something is being lost. Facebook is not the same as face to face and, as our virtual skills increase, I wonder if our ability to communicate using speech is on the decline.
Young people send me dozens of e-mails from schools. They often attach long lists of questions, to which they want detailed responses. Time is short, so I usually reply that they can phone me and I’ll do my best to answer. They very rarely do, partly because their verbal and telephone skills are less developed than their ability to type and e-mail.
Yet to adapt an old business saying, a meeting is worth five ’phone calls and a phone call is worth five e-mails. Direct communication can quickly lead to bonding and trust. People are more likely to reveal what they are thinking when they actually speak to another person. Most are wary of committing themselves in writing.
The great tragedy is that the phone was invented before the computer. If it had been the other way around, Internet forums would now be buzzing with the exciting news: "Have you heard (type, type) There is this amazing new gadget (type). Now you can talk directly with people. And they can hear your voice. Without all this typing." Persistent marketing would do the rest and colleges would be rushing to develop new courses in telephone skills.
But we are stuck with the supremacy of the typed word and it weakens our ability to look people in the eye and talk. A good example is how much new technology has affected public speaking.
Does anyone else hate PowerPoint "Ant meetings, I internally groan as speakers load up their ponderous projections. I don’t mind maps and pictures, but all those words of text drive me crazy. "nd now for my introduction ..." and up comes the word "introduction." "There are four main points" and we see "four points."
Masses of facts and statistics follow. These should all have been given out as an information sheet. Instead, while you are trying to read through the material, the lecturer is wandering verbally all over it. There’s a confusion of focus that gives me a headache. As the slides flash by, the most important relationship in public speaking is being undermined--the link between the speaker and the audience. In the author’s opinion, PowerPoint ______.