Writing is superior to talking, and not only because I don't have to pretend to listen or make receptive, benign faces. When I write I'm never concerned with the boundaries of politeness and normalcy, but in nearly all conversation these are the primary issues. Have a personality but don't look too weird, signal that you're paying attention even when you're really not, nod appropriately, agree with things you don't really agree with because they aren't worth arguing about, say things you don't really mean for a thousand different reasons, and so on. The engine that drives conversation isn't the desire for communication, it's forward momentum of conversation. Once you've committed to chattering you say things to keep the conversational ball in the air. To be an adult is to learn to do this convincingly like you really give a shit, which is reason #687 nearly all adults hate their lives. Writing, on the other hand, is in some ways about learning to be a child again, and not in the cuddly way people normally mean that. I mean it's about guileless honesty, embarrassing candor, blurting inappropriate things that just make everyone thoroughly uncomfortable, without strategic, self-aggrandizing motives.