Perhaps they measured it as emails/chat network patterns, but the increase could easily be explained by the fact that you cannot just walk up to someone's desk anymore.

I agree, everything else in the article pretty much matches my own experience except that.

Also understanding what is going on outside of your immediate duties, which is based on informal or overheard conversations, has disapeared completely (not the least because no one will put a rumor or an overheard conversation in writing in a chat room), and it has a nasty effect of making people feeling isolated.