With the rise of social media and texting, we’ve lost something, and that something is telephone calls. We no longer have access to the sound of the human voice, at least not in an interactive way. We love texting because we can “cut to the chase,” right? And now, very few of us use the phone the way we used to. Remember sitting on the floor, talking to friends until all hours of the night? Who does that anymore? This topic reminds me of a couple of posts I wrote awhile back about Baby Boomers.  Here’s one: The Best Reasons Baby Boomers Must Start Using Social Media.

Photo by Tom Hilton

Talk to People on the Telephone

By the way, the inspiration for this post came from the following tweet from Robinson Meyer, staff writer at the Atlantic. Robinson refers to an article by fellow writer Amanda Mull: Talk to People on the Telephone. And that really rang a bell for me.

I would go even further than @amandamull: Phone calls are the best way to communicate, we lost something as a society when we abandoned them, and we should bring them back en masse. https://t.co/Z1Sx9JzXpy

— Robinson Meyer (@robinsonmeyer) September 16, 2019

Phone Calls and Messy Reality

Amanda Mull’s words in her article (link above) about pestering her editor with phone calls made me laugh–the person I usually pester is also an editor and my best friend. When I text my editor friend, she says “Let’s talk on the phone.” Or she just calls me. Personally, I hope that millennials do not murder the phone call, as Mull suggests could happen. “Phone calls force you to contend with the messy reality of living in a world where other people might need your attention without warning you through a calendar invite two weeks in advance.” That’s really it, isn’t it? We need to make play dates just to talk. And at the same time, we’re all lonely, sitting at our desks trying to figure out how to make friends.

Complex Interactions Call for Real Conversations

And also, real conversations–phone calls or in-person conversations–are more satisfying than a million text messages. Despite having emojis, videos, and photos that we can add to our texts, they’re still not as fun as a phone call. You can’t hear the person on the other end laugh, or hear their cat meowing in the background. Or hear said cat break a plate and then the ensuing barrage of cursing.

Nuances in Language Are Better on the Phone

When you talk on the phone, you get to hear the weird ups and downs in a person’s voice, the question mark where you wouldn’t ordinarly put one, or the sarcastic tone. And you don’t get the long silences, usually. The other thing you get on the phone is the greeting. The hello! how are you? and the Good Morning. Greetings are important because they say to the other person I see you and you are important to me. As Sam Sommers says in The Power of Hello “little things make a big difference when it comes to social interaction.”

So Say Hello!

When you say hello, people usually say hello back. You might like to know more ways to be social: Ten Ways to Be Social. Saying hello, welcoming people, and noticing them are all good ways.