Voice mail is following in the footsteps of radio, television, film, records and email. That is, it is a technology that is slowly being supplanted by a newer technology -- in this case text messaging -- and may eventually become obsolete. So say new figures Vonage provided to USA Today, which reported that the number of voice mail messages left on user accounts was down 8 percent in July from the same month a year ago. "There are three reasons why people are leaving fewer voice messages," said Janet Sternberg, an assistant professor at Fordham University.