From Millennials to Zoomers, the telephone is hated. There are, of course, the usual reasons, that too many calls are spam or robo crap, which can be weeded out by only answering calls when the Caller ID tells you it’s someone you know. But much as there are some collateral excuses, the fact remains that they hate talking on the phone. Given that my generation might share their annoyance of calls, but feels no dread and loathing at the thought of speaking directly to another human being, I wondered why.
So I asked.
I do not understand why Zoomers absolutely hate phone calls. It's damn near pathologic.
Is it just too traumatic to talk to another person? Why do you hate phone calls?
— Scott Greenfield (@ScottGreenfield) April 7, 2022
Many of the replies and quote twits were off-topic rationalizations, the sort of common argumentation used by young people on twitter to deflect responsibility by ignoring the question and pointing at a non sequitur. But some responses were quite interesting and revealing.
They come when your mind is occupied with another matter. And people tend to “forget” obligations they assume verbally.
It seems rude to demand to speak with someone instantly
Personally, I communicate more precisely & quickly via text. Also, because old people who default to phone calls *tend* to be annoying generally, it’s a lot of energy masking my annoyance on a phone call. It’s also a lot of energy “performing” for a phone call.
Do you like talking to strangers you can’t see?
Sometimes a phone call is sitting and waiting on hold or with machines or going through phone menus. Getting a phone call is “drop everything now.” You have a nice leisurely life where you’re not always in the middle of something? I like scheduled calls.
Talking on the phone takes too much time. Just tell me what you fucking want.
Phone calls don’t show you who you’re talking to, and don’t give you the chance to think through your reply. The lack of visual connection leads to people being absolutely horrible on calls, and they still expect immediate replies and answers which may take time to research
Many people are not able to state their problems concisely , and want me to drop everything to hear them work through it
Because actual human interaction is painful
Not a Zoomer but if it can’t be resolved by text message then it’s not worth resolving
I’m GenX, but the last thing I want to do is listen to some extrovert babble on and on for an hour, draining my will to live. I avoid phone calls like the plague (unless it’s a close relative).
Phone calls are actually very very weird. You’re “having a conversation” but omitting all forms of non-verbal cues we’ve used sinc, including facial expressions.
Phone calls are the worst form of communication. You lose the ability to give and read body language that in-person/video provides, *and* the ability to really think your responses through that text provides. It’s live and blind, and therefore the worst of both worlds.
CAUSE NO ONE CARES HOW YOUR DAY’S GOING OR WHAT YOU DID WITH THE FAMILY THIS WEEKEND, JUST EMAIL ME THE F***ING SPREADSHEET SO I CAN GET ON WITH MY LIFE
Necessarily lacks an aspect to express yourself. Even text has emojis for finer and broad strokes. Some people aren’t particularly emotive with just voice.
And finally, the most perfect Zoomer response to the question:
lol phone calls suck tho frfr
While most seem to focus on an outlier to ignore the core question about their own anxiety and awkwardness, the responses were surprising as a reflection of so much about people’s mindset. What are the takeaways here?
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