Voice Conversations - Are you having more or less?
Here's an interesting post from my friend Garrett Smith that caught my eye the other day. I tagged it because I knew I needed to think about it a bit before I commented.
The Phone Call is DeadI really can't agree here, but maybe it's a very individual thing. From my view, voice conversations are more important and on the rise rather than the decline. Yes, I use plenty of SMS, IM and that sort of thing for quick information sharing. But the truth is, I spend more time on the phone than I have at any other time in my life. Voice conversation is becoming more integral to maintaining personal and business relationships.Well, maybe it is not completely dead, but it is dying.
For decades, the phone call has been the ideal way to keep in touch with family, friends and business associates. It was ideal because it was the easiest, fastest, most efficient way to communicate. With the advent of the Internet, email, IM and now SMS/MMS, the phone call is no longer the easiest, fastest or most efficient way to communicate. The phone call is dying because today’s youth no longer value the ideal that the phone call holds. That is the recipient of the call no longer thinks, “Wow, that was mighty nice of them to pick-up phone and call.”
[Read Garrett's full post]
I'm curious how readers here fell. Are you talking on the phone more, or less?
Technorati Tags: voice, conversations, unified communications
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Comments
I think the phone use habits of each person plays into this question. For instance, I am using voice much less now, but I have made it known to both business and personal contacts that I prefer email and IM to telephone. I am a writer by nature and communicate much better in that medium. I also prefer to save the emails as reminders (business) and mementos (personal).
It is also well-known to my friends that I do not answer my cell phone every time it rings, especially while I am driving. But I have noticed that many people will answer their cell phone anywhere, including in the bathroom. I have even heard colleagues taking business calls in the office restroom though not, thankfully, in the stalls.
Posted by: Constance Reader | January 22, 2008 11:32 AM
Ken, the interesting thing with this has more to do with how you and I use cell phones. Interesting because ours are perpetually attached to our heads connected to each other.
Having said that, how much are we speaking to one another while connected this way? Sometimes a lot, sometimes not so much.
I think voice will make a resurgence, so to speak. As technology progresses and people become more familiar with how to best use it, I think we'll see people using voice even more. Largely because other than visual media nothing gives a more personal experience to someone than audio.
Posted by: Sheryl | January 25, 2008 10:29 AM
We may have visited the moon, sent things to Mars and explored the ocean floor, but we still have yet to completely understand how to communicate with one another.
The new technology is posing these questions, and because human activity is so hard to re-direct there is going to be much more to be done in the field. It's a good job someone is talking about it eh?
Voice is less important in my view, but probably worth a think, and a more considered response.
Posted by: matt lambert | February 5, 2008 3:24 PM