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Saturday, April 18, 2009

Why Talk When You Can Text?

Over the past couple of years, I have found myself communicating more through SMS and email and spending less time talking on the phone. Less than 5 years ago, I was struggling to keep from going over my minutes, yet now, I have the lowest amount of minutes possible on my AT&T plan and forking out the extra money for more SMS messages. The only people I still call on a regular basis are my parents.

Reasons for my distaste in talking on the phone include:

1. When someone calls me, the conversation takes place during the best possible time for the caller; however, it may not be the best time for me. I work, I have a toddler, I have my own stuff going on so how can I give the person on the other end of the line the courtesy of all my attention when I'm on the phone if it's not the best time for me?

2. I hate small talk. I like to cut out the extra motions and get right down to business. SMS and email allow me to get right to the point without the small talk.

3. Talking on the phone takes too much time. Sometimes I don't answer the phone because I just don't want to carry on a lengthy conversation at the time. I can check an email or a text message when I have a few seconds to spare and respond back quickly. More often than not, it is quicker to get ahold of me sending a SMS or email rather than calling me.

I say: If someone calls me, they don't really know me very well. I'm curious, what ways to you prefer to communicate? Is the old fashioned phone call dead?

UPDATE: Poll Results 4/18/09 - 4/25/09

How do you prefer to communicate?
16% Phone call
33% Text message
00% Email
16% Face to face
16% Social networking site
16% Meh

(I realized I should have added "Instant message" as a choice in the poll. If that would have been your choice or any other communication tool, please leave it in the comments. Thanks!)
Posted by Keri
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2 comments:

  1. When it comes to getting in touch, I'm fairly flexible. All of my instant messenger screen names (I'm on or can be contacted through just about every major network used in North America) are publicly posted, I have a Grand Central (well, Google Voice now) number I hand out to people - frankly, the only way I think people could have an easier time getting in touch with me is by being me. I've always been of the belief that the person you're talking with is more important than how you converse with them.

    That said, there's still plenty of use for plain old voice telephony. For example, my parents are trying to get into text messaging (to rather humorous effect, I might add), but they often have a hard time relaying to me what they want or need in a manner that I can understand. (*shrug*) Combining this with their attempts to pick up and use common abbreviations, the conversations often alternate between things so unclear it rivals the NSA in terms of security and "Huh?". Talking via voice eliminates *some* of the confusion, as my parents have yet to start integrating SMS abbreviations into their speech.
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  2. Face to face wins every time for me. So much of a conversation is in body language or tone. Texts lose tone from comments, phone calls lose body language, face to face has it all. It's so much easier to be misunderstood in a text so I don't like them much. If someone sends me a text I'll think whatever they have to say isn't that important and won't be in any rush to check or read. If they call I'll think they have something important to say, if it's inconvenient for me I'll just ask if I can call them back a bit later.
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