ALARM clock, camera, diary, calendar, map, radio, TV, torch, MP3 player, book. Then there’s accessing the web and networking on social media. Smartphones just keep getting smarter and smarter.

The one thing, though, that is being dumbed down by our mobiles is the art of phone calling.

Smartphones may have become a constant fixture in our lives, but many people have stopped making voice calls, relying instead on messaging services such as WhatsApp.

One in four of us makes fewer than five mobile calls a month and one in 17 – 6% – make none at all, according to research used by the telecoms industry regulator Ofcom.

The figures follow previous studies which found that young people, in particular, find making voice calls difficult – which suggests the use of landline and mobile phones for an old-fashioned gab will fall further.

An Ofcom survey on landline use earlier this year found the number of minutes the nation spends on such calls had halved in just six years – down from a total of 103 billion in 2012 to 54bn in 2017.

But there was a tenfold surge in the average person’s monthly mobile data use, which covers messaging via texts, social media apps and emails, over the same period – taking it up to 1.9 gigabytes.

This explains why my best shot at getting a response from my millennial son is via Facebook and why I seldom hear his dulcet tones.

It also explains the strange phenomenon I have encountered while teaching student journalists … a total aversion to making calls. Wannabe media professionals reluctant to talk?! The communications industry’s future employees … who are too shy to communicate in person!? I was at pains to point out that texting a press office is not the best way to glean information to flesh out a story. I might well have been speaking another language. Or not speaking at all, perhaps.

But then, I’m maybe showing my vintage. I recall, as a trainee journalist, the office in which I worked – home to a legendarily traditionalist publisher – boasted a laminate card next to each telephone. These notices were a

list of bullet points on the protocol for answering said object when it rang. Woe betide anyone overheard deviating from the rules of engagement. Little did I expect that nearly 30 years on, I’d be resorting to a DM on Twitter to get hold of a contact.

Apparently, though, young people find making a phone call intimidating. A spokesman from Ofcom said: “Studies have also shown that younger people find making calls daunting and prefer to use messaging services such as WhatsApp.”

Poor wee snowflaky lambs.

Ofcom’s Mobile Matters report analysed how 150,000 people used their Android phone between January and March and found that even when people make calls, they tend to be very short.

This makes me sad. I remember as a teenager spending hours chatting on the phone to pals. This often did not go down well with the rest of the household. Then there was the issue of the phone bill. Limitless call tariffs were yet to be invented. I shudder to think how long I’d have spent blethering if they had been.

But then, back in the day it was good to talk.