What has Happened to the Telephone?

Person talking on phone

“You talking to me” a caption from the NY Times says

I feel when the phone rings it’s something bad. Now that my parents have passed on it rarely rings except with bad news or telemarketing. Even hotels and conferences want registrations to happen on-line. I long for days gone by when one would pick up the phone to plan a get-to-getter rather than email. It’s so much easier to get all the info at once rather than through scattered emails hours or days apart. It’s so nice that while the person is on the line questions would come up that could be answered at the time and not be neglected or avoided altogether. But I know many don’t agree with me. They want the ability to discuss plans at their leisure and when it suits them. Is this the reason for their aversion to using the phone?

There were four letters in this past Sunday’s edition to the New York Times editor about communication by phone. Three of the four were disappointed in how the quality of communication has deteriorated to exclude all phone messages. That phone calls have disappeared and been substituted by emailing or texting, even to the extent that people in one’s work environment and one office cube over will email and not talk. All three were passionate about real communication, real communication including nuance, tenor and tone. They questioned the people who insisted on communicating behind a ‘digital privacy screen’. They said email and texting seemed a tad cowardly: a fear of direct one on one communication where the caller has to actually say something and take part in a dialogue.

1970's Phone

The one odd ball out said he was starting to feel somewhat strange at his own reluctance to talk on the phone, to call people or pick up calls. “He would wonder why the person is calling and not texting if it’s not an emergency.”He wasn’t up to talking on the phone when it rang.

These letters were a commentary on Pamela Paul’s article in the New York Times last week that apparently ranted on telephone calls. I only get the Sunday edition so missed the actual article but got the gist from the letters to the editor.

I do pick up the phone to talk to my family and sons. I wish that more other people would like to talk to me on the phone. I love a good phone conversation with real nuance, tenor and tone. My BF thinks that when enough people get Skype, there may be a revival of phone conversations

What about you? Do you prefer email over talking on the phone? Why or why not?

Would you rather text than talk?

You are the light of the  world.

Related Articles

• Dr. Irene S. Levine: Phone Friends: Headed toward Extinction? (huffingtonpost.com)
• Phone Friends: An extinct species? (psychologytoday.com)
• Please Don’t Call Me… Maybe (blogher.com)
• Text or Call? (benclapton.id.au)
• Is The Phone Call Dying or Did We Miss the Funeral? (amog.com)