You're using a subjective definition of "better" and waving off anyone with a different definition as being either old or a hipster. Body language, tone of voice, word emphasis, etc. is not about being able to predict what someone is thinking or feeling, but about communicating meta-text, for which the electronic stand-ins (lol, emoticons, caps, italics, etc.) are severely lacking and really quite lame. Talking to someone in person even just one time, so that you can hear their voice when you read their text adds a lot of richness to electronic communication. If electronic communication really is better in every way, as your first two paragraphs claim (pretty offensively - "Bullshit", "no grace", "cowardice", "vaccine"), then why wouldn't you want to propose marriage over SMS? In-person communication is good. Electronic communication is also good, but in different ways, and for different things. All this "BETTER" stuff is nonsense - if you have a short missive to fire off, use a text, if you haven't talked to a friend or loved one for awhile, pick up a phone or get on a plane!

Or maybe I'm just a hipster (I don't think I'm old yet...)