It sure isn't so we can be better targeted and packaged by slick marketeers. It's more likely because we're sick to death of the stultifying effects of mass production, mass media, mass marketing, mass everything. Not to let Gartner Group off the hot seat too quickly, let's look at their view of e-mail. The only real problem with technology is that it tends to be developed by technologists. And this kind of thinking is one of the primary proofs of the downside.
Automation is Good, therefore More Automation is Better.
Go ask General Motors about this. The simple answer is, as the Boss says, get a little of that human touch. And while you're at it, get a serious grip on the fact that your bottom line depends far more on the good will of real human beings than on how fast you can process faceless EDI transactions. Stashing such communications into some automated database, never to be seen by human eyes, is certainly the height of folly. The Internet not an isolated phenomenon.