Are smart phones killing face-to face conversation?

The article talks about how the raise of technology has made us what it calls “conversational cowards” because people are now less and less capable to strike an interesting conversation,and to keep it afloat, and well I really agree with this statement. I don’t blame the phones themselves or the companies that produce them, because at the end of the day we can all agree technology has done a lot of good for us, instead I blame us a consumers and users or these devises, and I personally see it on myself , it is hard naturally for humans to interact with big groups, in fear we might be rejected, and your phone is always a viable excuse, with the internet you have immediate access to infinite hours of entertainment, and connected to everybody at the same time, in the old days if your crush came out and sat next to you you had to either be a man and talk or let her see you have no social skills, and be awkward , staring at each other. but now with phones the same scenario can play out and, but now you have a third option, you’re still a friendless freak, with terrible conversation approach, but now for all she knows you could be playing message pool with the president, although you’re nervously refreshing the Michel Jackson tweeter that hasn’t update since 09