Dyadic pairing - a two conversation with a chosen friend

Francis Crick (wikipedia) intellectual technique, thoughout his life, was a dyadic pairing, a long running two way conversation with a chosen friend somewhere between an interrogation and a Socratic dialogue (wikipedia). In the periods when he had no such sounding board, he was visibly at a loss. Georg Krissel was the first to take the part, later filled in turn by Jim Watson, Sydney Brenner and Christof Koch. (source: Francis Crick by Matt Ridley, Chapter 2, pg 17).

Has Internet Chat largely replaced dyadic pairing today?