I just find phone calls rude an annoying tbh. I will be talking to someone and then they get a phone call that interrupts my conversation and they leave to answer the call. One of the things I...
I just find phone calls rude an annoying tbh. I will be talking to someone and then they get a phone call that interrupts my conversation and they leave to answer the call. One of the things I hate about modern tech is how you are constantly contactable and can be disrupted at any time. I wish IM platforms had a way to set your status to say "I am doing nothing important right now, feel free to talk to me" We used to have this ages ago where when you are free you would turn on your computer and open the IM client and people would see you show up online. These days everyones IM is always online 24/7 but that doesn't mean you can actually have a chat with them.
Those are two different issues, though: calling someone, and choosing to take a call while in a conversation with someone. This article is about how calling someone is now seen as rude and...
I just find phone calls rude an annoying tbh. I will be talking to someone and then they get a phone call that interrupts my conversation and they leave to answer the call.
Those are two different issues, though: calling someone, and choosing to take a call while in a conversation with someone. This article is about how calling someone is now seen as rude and intrusive, where only a couple of decades ago it was normal practice for contacting someone.
If the person receiving a phone call chooses to walk away from a conversation they're having to take the call, that's a whole different issue.
One of the things I hate about modern tech is how you are constantly contactable and can be disrupted at any time.
But that's not modern. That's been happening since the invention of the telephone: that machine in the corner of your living room could start ringing at any time and disrupt your life. Even before the telephone, there were telegrams, where a delivery person could knock at your door at any time. And, before that, in Victorian-era London the postal service used to deliver letters multiple times per day, so you could send someone a letter and expect a response within an hour or two. And, going further back to pre-postal times, there was always the possibility of a messenger arriving at your doorstep at any time. Or... maybe your friend from down the road could simply walk up and knock on your door.
Communications have always been disruptive. Modern technology might have made this a 24/7 problem, but the possibility for disruption has always been present. In fact, a case could be made that text-based digital communications such as SMS or IM are less disruptive than older methods, because you can de-activate them or ignore them when you don't want to be contacted (you can't change the status of your front door to "away from keyboard" or turn your old analogue mechanical phone to "do not disturb").
I agree it's what the article is about (Octofox seemed to mostly go off on a tangent about people not setting their IM status to "available" or "away"). That's why I posted the article: I thought...
I think this sort of shift in tone/expectation is tied to both the OP and what @Octofox is saying.
I agree it's what the article is about (Octofox seemed to mostly go off on a tangent about people not setting their IM status to "available" or "away"). That's why I posted the article: I thought it talked about an interesting shift in people's expectations regarding phone calls. And I can see how it works. I've even done it myself. There have been times I've sent an SMS instead of calling someone because I don't want to disturb them.
However, it is still possible to answer a call, tell the caller you're in the middle of something, ask them if the call can wait, and offer to call them back later. The caller can then tell you whether the call is about something urgent, or agree to wait for you to call back. It's common practice within my family. As recently as two days ago, my father called me and the first words out of his mouth were "Are you busy right now?" I called my brother once, and after saying hello, he immediately told me he was out at dinner, so I said I'd call him another time. It is possible to manage phone calls without having to walk away from whatever you're currently doing.
The article seemed to be cherry picking comments to build this story of "Haha, millennials are so socially inept they get a panic attack when someone calls them" When the reality is most people...
The article seemed to be cherry picking comments to build this story of "Haha, millennials are so socially inept they get a panic attack when someone calls them" When the reality is most people want to have distinct periods of focus and unfocused time. When you call someone you have no idea what period they are in right now. When you text them they can choose to ignore it unless they are free. These days when I get a phone call its usually a business notifying me of something important like a delivery guy asking where to place a package or similar. I will drop what I am doing including at work to answer it because my phone calls tend to last about 30 seconds.
My preferred way of casually talking to others is in person and if thats not possible we usually talk over IM and then if it goes on for a while we will start a voice call.
At least on Android phones there's a Do not disturb feature, easy to turn on for the time period you want. Most people aren't really obliged to be reachable all the time. It's a personal choice to...
At least on Android phones there's a Do not disturb feature, easy to turn on for the time period you want. Most people aren't really obliged to be reachable all the time. It's a personal choice to respond later or not respond at all.
I prefer phone calls over messaging personally. But I've developed a habit of never answering the phone when someone rings and calling back when it's convenient for me. It started because my...
I prefer phone calls over messaging personally. But I've developed a habit of never answering the phone when someone rings and calling back when it's convenient for me.
It started because my sister is addicted to calling someone when she is driving. I've tried to convince here that even hands free is distracting and dangerous. So I just stopped answering. I would call back an hour later and I've found that she usually doesn't want to talk then. It was just something to do while driving because apparently concentrating on driving is boring.
But now I do it for almost all calls. Especially unknown or private numbers. Which more often then not are scams or marketing anyway.
A few people will just text me to call them now but I don't think it's as prevalent as the article suggests. Most people I know still just call.
I’ve started doing this with texts too — putting my phone in DND for 23 hours if the day. If I’m expecting an important message. I’ll turn it off however. It’s freeing—especially when I’m in a...
I’ve started doing this with texts too — putting my phone in DND for 23 hours if the day. If I’m expecting an important message. I’ll turn it off however.
It’s freeing—especially when I’m in a rare period of concentration. One habit that was hard at the beginning was the urge to keep checking my phone.
Just throwing another opinion into the mix but... I prefer messaging and there are a couple reasons why, these have probably already been mentioned before: It allows me to answer on my own time...
Just throwing another opinion into the mix but...
I prefer messaging and there are a couple reasons why, these have probably already been mentioned before: It allows me to answer on my own time and it doesn't take up 100% of my attention. I can ignore a text until I'm available for it, and I can text and do other things at the same time.
Now, there are a couple times when I prefer to call, if I'm going to be outputting a whole bunch of words I'll call just to increase the efficiency, this is especially true if the other person is a slow typer, or if we are going to be talking for a long time. (There have been times where I've had 2+ hour long conversations). If I'm doing a group thing where the primary focus is the group (IE: DND, or a video game group). I'll VC so that I can have my hands around and to get the extra information that's hard to encode in them.
If I need to talk to someone, I'll prefer texting them, and then evaluate if I need to call them, this allows them to answer on their own time. If it's something (really) urgent then I'll text them, wait a bit, and then call them if I can't get a response.
/shrug just my two cents.
I just find phone calls rude an annoying tbh. I will be talking to someone and then they get a phone call that interrupts my conversation and they leave to answer the call. One of the things I hate about modern tech is how you are constantly contactable and can be disrupted at any time. I wish IM platforms had a way to set your status to say "I am doing nothing important right now, feel free to talk to me" We used to have this ages ago where when you are free you would turn on your computer and open the IM client and people would see you show up online. These days everyones IM is always online 24/7 but that doesn't mean you can actually have a chat with them.
Those are two different issues, though: calling someone, and choosing to take a call while in a conversation with someone. This article is about how calling someone is now seen as rude and intrusive, where only a couple of decades ago it was normal practice for contacting someone.
If the person receiving a phone call chooses to walk away from a conversation they're having to take the call, that's a whole different issue.
But that's not modern. That's been happening since the invention of the telephone: that machine in the corner of your living room could start ringing at any time and disrupt your life. Even before the telephone, there were telegrams, where a delivery person could knock at your door at any time. And, before that, in Victorian-era London the postal service used to deliver letters multiple times per day, so you could send someone a letter and expect a response within an hour or two. And, going further back to pre-postal times, there was always the possibility of a messenger arriving at your doorstep at any time. Or... maybe your friend from down the road could simply walk up and knock on your door.
Communications have always been disruptive. Modern technology might have made this a 24/7 problem, but the possibility for disruption has always been present. In fact, a case could be made that text-based digital communications such as SMS or IM are less disruptive than older methods, because you can de-activate them or ignore them when you don't want to be contacted (you can't change the status of your front door to "away from keyboard" or turn your old analogue mechanical phone to "do not disturb").
I agree it's what the article is about (Octofox seemed to mostly go off on a tangent about people not setting their IM status to "available" or "away"). That's why I posted the article: I thought it talked about an interesting shift in people's expectations regarding phone calls. And I can see how it works. I've even done it myself. There have been times I've sent an SMS instead of calling someone because I don't want to disturb them.
However, it is still possible to answer a call, tell the caller you're in the middle of something, ask them if the call can wait, and offer to call them back later. The caller can then tell you whether the call is about something urgent, or agree to wait for you to call back. It's common practice within my family. As recently as two days ago, my father called me and the first words out of his mouth were "Are you busy right now?" I called my brother once, and after saying hello, he immediately told me he was out at dinner, so I said I'd call him another time. It is possible to manage phone calls without having to walk away from whatever you're currently doing.
The article seemed to be cherry picking comments to build this story of "Haha, millennials are so socially inept they get a panic attack when someone calls them" When the reality is most people want to have distinct periods of focus and unfocused time. When you call someone you have no idea what period they are in right now. When you text them they can choose to ignore it unless they are free. These days when I get a phone call its usually a business notifying me of something important like a delivery guy asking where to place a package or similar. I will drop what I am doing including at work to answer it because my phone calls tend to last about 30 seconds.
My preferred way of casually talking to others is in person and if thats not possible we usually talk over IM and then if it goes on for a while we will start a voice call.
At least on Android phones there's a Do not disturb feature, easy to turn on for the time period you want. Most people aren't really obliged to be reachable all the time. It's a personal choice to respond later or not respond at all.
I just switch off my phone all the time, unless when I expect a call. Works fine enough.
I prefer phone calls over messaging personally. But I've developed a habit of never answering the phone when someone rings and calling back when it's convenient for me.
It started because my sister is addicted to calling someone when she is driving. I've tried to convince here that even hands free is distracting and dangerous. So I just stopped answering. I would call back an hour later and I've found that she usually doesn't want to talk then. It was just something to do while driving because apparently concentrating on driving is boring.
But now I do it for almost all calls. Especially unknown or private numbers. Which more often then not are scams or marketing anyway.
A few people will just text me to call them now but I don't think it's as prevalent as the article suggests. Most people I know still just call.
I’ve started doing this with texts too — putting my phone in DND for 23 hours if the day. If I’m expecting an important message. I’ll turn it off however.
It’s freeing—especially when I’m in a rare period of concentration. One habit that was hard at the beginning was the urge to keep checking my phone.
Just throwing another opinion into the mix but...
I prefer messaging and there are a couple reasons why, these have probably already been mentioned before: It allows me to answer on my own time and it doesn't take up 100% of my attention. I can ignore a text until I'm available for it, and I can text and do other things at the same time.
Now, there are a couple times when I prefer to call, if I'm going to be outputting a whole bunch of words I'll call just to increase the efficiency, this is especially true if the other person is a slow typer, or if we are going to be talking for a long time. (There have been times where I've had 2+ hour long conversations). If I'm doing a group thing where the primary focus is the group (IE: DND, or a video game group). I'll VC so that I can have my hands around and to get the extra information that's hard to encode in them.
If I need to talk to someone, I'll prefer texting them, and then evaluate if I need to call them, this allows them to answer on their own time. If it's something (really) urgent then I'll text them, wait a bit, and then call them if I can't get a response.
/shrug just my two cents.