The Death of the Phone Call
From this month’s Wired magazine, Clive Thompson on The Death of the Phone Call. An excerpt:
This generation doesn’t make phone calls, because everyone is in constant, lightweight contact in so many other ways: texting, chatting, and social-network messaging. And we don’t just have more options than we used to. We have better ones: These new forms of communication have exposed the fact that the voice call is badly designed. It deserves to die.
Consider: If I suddenly decide I want to dial you up, I have no way of knowing whether you’re busy, and you have no idea why I’m calling. We have to open Schrödinger’s box every time, having a conversation to figure out whether it’s OK to have a conversation. Plus, voice calls are emotionally high-bandwidth, which is why it’s so weirdly exhausting to be interrupted by one. (We apparently find voicemail even more excruciating: Studies show that more than a fifth of all voice messages are never listened to.)
The telephone, in other words, doesn’t provide any information about status, so we are constantly interrupting one another. The other tools at our disposal are more polite. Instant messaging lets us detect whether our friends are busy without our bugging them, and texting lets us ping one another asynchronously. (Plus, we can spend more time thinking about what we want to say.) For all the hue and cry about becoming an “always on” society, we’re actually moving away from the demand that everyone be available immediately.
I wonder what implications this has for pastoral ministry. It’s often the personal conversations over the phone or in person that are the most necessary, yet they’re often the most difficult. IF it becomes “OK” to have those via some sort of messaging, to me that’s a problem
Chris, I agree.
The Death of the Phone Call – http://tinyurl.com/2u2a3oj
Interesting- The Death of the Phone Call http://j.mp/8ZiN9z
From Wired Magazine – the death of the phone call: http://bit.ly/9VGx82
Reading: The Death of the Phone Call http://bit.ly/dftdBm
Very interesting post http://bit.ly/aJVUEB
Pretty sad that actual interaction is considered “emotionally high bandwidth.” I think Instant Messaging and the like have become more popular because it gives the illusion that you can say your opinion without having to listen to the opposing side, when in reality a lot of people are just doing the same, and you end up with this cacophany of non-interactive opinions. Nice world, huh?
I couldn't agree more, but we lose so much context without hearing a voice [ Death of the Phone Call ] http://bit.ly/ce8e5a
G’day Justin and your readers.
I’d appreciate a visit from my pastor more than a phone call, and I’d appreciate a phone call more than an email.
Reminds me of Auberon Waugh’s rude quote:
Anyone wishing to communicate with Americans should do so by e-mail, which has been specially invented for the purpose, involving neither physical proximity nor speech.
And I think we do use email to avoid contact with people.
I listened to an interview with Os Guinness where he pointed out that there are many people who will insist that you loose nothing by going to these less personal forms of communication, but the reality is that you do loose. That “emotional bandwidth” is highly valuable if you consider that communication is meant to express yourself! You loose the facial expressions, the body language, the voice intonation and variations. You loose eye-contact!
And let’s face it, most people are very poor at expressing themselves in writing. So many people revert to simple, short blurbs. And forget about asking questions or raising objections to someone’s comment. You’ll go back and forth and back and forth forever. One phone call can quickly communicate so much and clear up so many misunderstandings. Have you seen how many people blow up on each other on Facebook!? It’s crazy how people seem to feel free to treat each other poorly and misunderstand each other frequently.
RT @JustinBuzzard: The Death of the Phone Call http://is.gd/eanDW
