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Phones=fail, internet=good

(subject is a writing prompt from stacymckenna)

I mostly hate talking on the phone. I occasionally see value in it, but I would really be happy to use it 90% less than I do, and I really try to limit the use now. There are a lot of reasons for this, but it isn’t because I dislike communicating with all people all the time (that is just a some of the time thing). The biggest reasons for me, have to do with efficiency and clarity.

I tend to be busy and stressed. The phone ringing interrupts me. I hear the ringing and at the very least must stop whatever I am doing long enough to decide whether to completely ignore it, or think about what else to do. If I don’t decide immediately to ignore it, I must then figure out who it is and make some sort of judgment about what to do based on that. It feels intrusive to me. Like somebody tapping me on the shoulder. Tap Tap Tap. It is invading my mental space bubble. Even if I let it go to voicemail, I must then deal with it later, and I greatly dislike voicemail too

Now, since that is how I view incoming calls, it is also how I tend to view outgoing calls. This makes me rather loathe to make a call. Why would I want to interrupt somebody else, just because I happen to have time at that moment?

I like email. I can send an email when I have time. They can get to it when they have time. I check my email a lot, and quickly process whether I want to handle it immediately or later. I handle it when I am ready. I can look it over multiple times to make sure that I still think it communicates what I am trying to communicate. Then I can send it. When there is some sort of failure to communicate, I have a text record that I can go over and try to figure out where the failure occurred. This isn’t really a matter of assigning blame in most cases, it just helps me to learn how to handle things better in the future. It is less time consuming and stressful than playing back the memory recording in my head of a phone call to figure out where things went awry.

I even like chat. I can make myself available when I am available. I can be “away” when I don’t want to be available. It is like faster and more immediate email. It feels more like conversation to me, but still gives me more ability to multitask and deal with it as I have time.

Now, I do happen to like my cell phone, because it lets me carry my email and AIM with me everywhere. I also like text messages.

Somebody recently told me I should give out my phone number and say, “but the speaker on my phone is broken, so just text me”.

I haven't made many food posts lately
Yesterday's Outing

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