Does texting make teens less social?

Does someone really have to ask?

If i write letters am i less social?
If i send email am i less social
If i talk to voice messaging machines
If i use atms instead of a bank teller...
If i drive a car instead of a rickshaw...
If children play with dolls...


Pew internet asked the question, particularly in response to such media reports as this one.

Similar to the fears of writing illiteracy, texting is associated with social illiteracy...yet it is a means of connecting, just differently.
What about seeing it as strengthening the weak ties, the tenuous strands, the myriad of small things that pave social conviviality?