When people started texting, there were those who pointed out that communication would suffer between all of us, concerned there would be less face-to-face and voice interactions. Well, now it's text that's taking a back seat to photos and videos sent through the phone.
"The old saying being that a picture is worth a thousand words, um, I think applies very well here," said college student Joe Fitzsimmons.
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He's a man of few words and le3ts his pictures and video to the talking when communicating with friends.
"When I see something that I want to share with someone else, I'll take a picture of it," explained Fitzsimmons. "It's much more different when you see what's going on instead of being told what's going on."
A recent survey by the CTIA, the Association for the Wireless Industry, shows Fitzsimmons is not alone. Its findings showed actual voice usage stayed flat over six months, texting went down, but pictures went up.
"Multimedia messages, the video itself or the, the pictures themselves, that's up more than 65% over six months," said John Walls with CTIA.
Findings also show that on Instagram, people share 45 million photos a day, on Snapchat, 200 million images are sent and on Facebook, people share 300 million images daily.
"We are sharing our content, you know, our data, our lives in, in entirely different ways these days," added Walls.
But what does this mean for the written word and actual conversation? Mitchell Stephens is a journalism professor and wrote the book, The Rise of the Image, the Fall of the Word. He doesn't think images will replace language completely.
"But the combination of images and language I think is really interesting," said Stephens. "I think you're going to be able to say things with moving images and words that you can't say in just printed words."
With the technology changing so rapidly, Stephens says it is only going to get easier for people to communicate this way.
"I think we're on the verge of something really important," explained Stephens. "Image communication, particularly moving image communication, is really new. I think we're just tiptoeing into an exciting new form of communication."
Fitzsimmons, who sends dozens of photos and videos a day, says he still uses words and texts when he needs to, but he believes this trend is a more effective way to get the word out.
"I think a picture, video, sometimes, will explain most of what I need to say," he said.
It seems there is no end to the apps that make sharing pictures and video even easier. From Mixbit to Vine, there are options. There is also one called Callsnap that lets you decline an incoming phone call when you're busy. It shows the caller what you're up to, and why you can't answer, by sending them a photo.