* Spreading a newspaper or magazine across the kitchen counter, so the whole family can catch up on the news together.

* The school lunch menu, posted on the refrigerator.

* Elementary school homework, with smiley stickers and gold stars.

* School newsletters.

* Report cards.

I embrace the digital just about everywhere. But nothing kills family time like kids and grownups zoning out over screens. No media promotes live, in-person conversations like paper.

I feel like my morning reading is getting stale.  My go-to this morning was Slate.com, where for some reason I’ve been fixated on the implosion of the Michelle Bachmann campaign…not sure why this wasn’t seen as inevitable from the start.

Typically, it’s the New York Times (this morning, how can you focus on campaign news when being stared down by the  piercing blue eyes of Brad Pitt?), and the local StarTribune (Rickyyyy Rubiooooo!)

And if I have time, its comic book culture and news on Newsrama and the Comics Alliance (10 Comic Book Movies in 2012! Writer Speaks Out Against SOPA!).

But, old habits, you know?  What are you reading? What should I add to the morning report?

My local Caribou Coffee shop says they’re no longer selling beans from Kenya. The sweetest, smoothest beans, with an aroma that at first whiff awakens your mind to finer things. But…gone.

The burrito joint near work, Baja Sol, apparently has dropped my favorite Fire Roasted from the salsa bar choices. I had a routine there — dip the chips into the Fire Roasted then the Caliente. Gone.

Things change. When we were dating, my wife and I loved a restaurant called Pasquale’s. Disappeared some years back, along with the old Loring Cafe where we’d gotten engaged.

And of course, there was the time years back where at work we had a weekly Friday morning breakfast at this little joint called "A&J’s Gem Cafe" and the group shows up and the diner is still smoking and the news crews are out in front. Apparently, the couple that owned the place had a fight, and the diner was gone. Friday breakfasts didn’t survive long after that.

There was a time when I could walk into Peter’s Grill in downtown Minneapolis, take a seat at the counter and the waitress would say, "Gyros Plate and a Coke?" and I’d smile and nod.

I’ve lived in Minnesota for more than 20 years now…it’s the first place I’ve lived long enough to see change…people come and go, shops and restaurants rise and fall, neighborhoods reshaped.

It’s hard to watch things change, but it’s easier than, say, changing. In some ways, you’d think embracing change would be simpler if you could, say, pick up and move every four years, be someone new, find new places and new faces, reshape yourself, change old habits and finding new ones. But here’s a secret that’s probably not a secret: it doesn’t work that way,

Old habits are like being a rock in the river, stuck in place, watching the world flow by. Better to dive in and see what you find.

In other words, because it’s convenient, it’s OK if the communication itself is unsuccessful.

Which brings us to the new Facebook Social Inbox. As reported by Christopher Heine at ClickZ,

The Social Inbox will include regular Facebook messages, e-mail sent to @Facebook.com addresses, mobile phone messages (SMS), and Facebook Chat discussions.

Not only that, ClickZ reports,

When a brand sends an e-mail or direct message to a “liker” on the Facebook Messages platform, it will appear in an “Other Messages” section that sits directly below a “Messages” folder. In simple terms, the “Messages” folder will house conversations with friends while “Other Messages” will hold messages from entities that users have “liked.”

There is a part of me that suspects that I’ll find this insanely useful and part of me that asks, “what’s the point?”

The “insanely useful”  side sees how bringing email and Facebook comment threads together could be a lot of fun…and a way not to “miss” those vitally important family updates.  This is what my relative wants…has been begging for, in  fact. The Social Inbox is a people-centric system — your messages publish to them they way they want them — whether it’s SMS, email or Facebook chat. You don’t have to keep family and friends’ communications preferences in mind when you communicate.

On the other hand, what’s the point? Facebook already is a big ‘ol social inbox.  Would an enhanced Social Inbox that keeps me abreast of  the stream of social conversation throughout my day enhance my experience of life … or replace it?

I watched the video and I was moved…and I’m impressed.  And a little creeped out. Facebook’s Joel Seligstein talks about how with Social Inbox a couple can have a virtual shoebox of every communication they ever share — from, to paraphrase — making dates over texts to love letters to picking up the kids.  What he doesn’t say is that it’s all supported by the brands you “Like” — friendly folks from cool and useful places that you bring into an ever closer circle in your social orbit.

In the end, I’ll try it out because that’s what I do. Businesses and brands would be foolish not to want to be Facebook Liked, and thus to gain a spot in the social lives of their fans.

But my prediction is two-fold: 1) that heavy Facebook users are going to embrace this and will become even more deeply emeshed  in the Facebook ecosystem; and 2) the intensity of centralizing nearly all social interaction around Facebook will intensify the backlash…hastening the launch of “what’s next” … because you know it’s coming.

What say you?