Is talking on the phone dead to most people?

[ranger]

I work for a large company. The company has invested heavily in multiple forms of communication aka collaboration tools and most are "keyboard" versus verbal. Many of these work collaboration tools are like FaceBook and other social media - others are like texting.

The new office layout hotness is no assigned seating, absolutely minimal offices, not even cubicles. You show up, go to an assigned small locker, get your stuff, and move to whichever type of work station you need for that moment - desk with chair for individual work on laptop, collaboration area for small meeting, larger for larger meetings, and so on. Many of us travel and there are not even enough seats for everyone assigned to the team.

I am old and an engineer and I am not a fan.

[Peally]

While I like talking on the phone when buying something from someone (if anything to hear if they're nuts), phone audio quality is garbage. When I'm at work I have about a 60% chance of understanding what the hell the other person is saying on any given conversation or phone. With useless foreign call support that drops down to less than 10% (I fucking hate companies that outsource support with a passion).

[blues]

Take two aspirin and don't call me in the morning.

[Welder]

I'll sell you my bike, and even talk to you on the phone about it.

If it's an Aprilia Tuono Factory with low miles and a reasonable price, I'm halfway there already.

I make it a point to speak over the phone on topics which are important because tone is important for some types of things. Is tone important for a bike deal? I don't think so.

I dunno, I disagree. Even smart people can appear dumb on texts because of all the abbreviations and lingo, but it's hard for a dumb person to sound smart on the phone. I've bought stuff from nearby using all texts, but if I'm dropping thousands on something and driving hundreds of miles to get it, I want to have some degree of confidence about the seller and how they took care of the item, and I don't get that from texting.

It does seem mildly silly that people are unwilling to talk on the phone in order to facilitate the sale of a motorcycle, but OTOH, it's probably not something you need to get bent out of shape about - just ask your questions via text or email like they want.

Yeah, and that's what I'm doing at the moment. But I don't have to like it!

[TicTacticalTimmy]

Speaking as a younger person: yes, phone conversations between strangers are out of style.

I think the root of this trend is something like this: a phone call is highly interruptive. To answer it you have to completely stop what you are doing. This is especially the case if you were in the middle of doing something involving your phone, which is very likely.
By contrast, a text or e-mail can be answered at the recipient's leisure. Thus a text is a more "polite" way of talking to someone, particularly of initially getting their attention. It is the equivalent of knocking/ringing a doorbell instead of just walking into someone's house.

Having said that, if your conversation is complex enough that it is tedious to answer through text (as a general rule, this means that either party would have to send over 3 texts to conclude the conversation), then the polite thing to do would be to send a text asking if it is OK to call them, and then call and speak the old-fashioned way.

Another part of it is that we have become so used to the above mannerisms that to hear a strangers voice on the phone is a little jarring, it has the air of a social faux pas. You can interpret this fact as saying a variety of negative things about my generation, but overall the practical point is that just calling a stranger or even is socially odd.

[orionz06]

I work for a large company. The company has invested heavily in multiple forms of communication aka collaboration tools and most are "keyboard" versus verbal. Many of these work collaboration tools are like FaceBook and other social media - others are like texting.

We have that where I am. It's actually awesome as far as wading through bullshit to get things done. There are so many levels of useless management and so many wasted meetings to justify those jobs and to be able to get a short format response while someone is there is priceless. Chat and phone aren't treated as formal, email is. When folks send emails it's to document things. We can get the informal response, or often the real answer, this way in an instant. Then chat through the email. It also works dealing with three different countries and multiple US locations. We can make small groups to chat quickly, etc. That said, while this is all awesome I do find it better to walk over and have a face to face talk.

I am old and an engineer and I am not a fan.

Nearly all of the old dudes and retired-contracting back in guys love it.

If it's an Aprilia Tuono Factory with low miles and a reasonable price, I'm halfway there already.

YES!

Speaking as a younger person: yes, phone conversations between strangers are out of style.

I think the root of this trend is something like this: a phone call is highly interruptive. To answer it you have to completely stop what you are doing. This is especially the case if you were in the middle of doing something involving your phone, which is very likely.
By contrast, a text or e-mail can be answered at the recipient's leisure. Thus a text is a more "polite" way of talking to someone, particularly of initially getting their attention. It is the equivalent of knocking/ringing a doorbell instead of just walking into someone's house.

Having said that, if your conversation is complex enough that it is tedious to answer through text (as a general rule, this means that either party would have to send over 3 texts to conclude the conversation), then the polite thing to do would be to send a text asking if it is OK to call them, and then call and speak the old-fashioned way.

Another part of it is that we have become so used to the above mannerisms that to hear a strangers voice on the phone is a little jarring, it has the air of a social faux pas. You can interpret this fact as saying a variety of negative things about my generation, but overall the practical point is that just calling a stranger or even is socially odd.

This. I do however like WhatsApp. It has the benefits of voice messaging when needed but I can reply at my leisure. Conversation pace can be slower but it's a seamless transition from text to talk and back to text.

[45dotACP]

I talk to people for 12 hours a day. Most of it getting yelled at and having people tell me their problems.

Conversation is overrated unless it's with a beautiful woman.

I'll be on whomever's lawn I want

Sent from my XT1585 using Tapatalk

[Welder]

Now that the heat of the day is on it's way here, time to go out for an emergency repair call I just got. That's one thing about my business -- I have never, ever gotten a text asking if I can fix something for a customer.

Digital stuff has it's place; don't get me wrong. I email invoices to nearly all of my customers and am paid electronically by some. The more the merrier; I hate trips to the bank as much as the next person, even if the ATM is relatively convenient. Quickbooks has been great as Accounting software and I know my way around AutoCAD and other design programs. I can draw up parts I need on the computer and the machine shop can put the file right in their plasma table, cutting out any dimensional mistakes by the middleman AND saving me drafting fees.

I just hate texting for some, OK many, things. One thing about us old people (at 39 am I old?). Perseverance pays off. Got the guy to call me, and next Friday I'll be making a 12-hr round trip.

[RevolverRob]

I don't answer my phone for unknown numbers. I don't have voicemail setup. I do not like talking on the phone.

Most of your questions about any given motorcycle could have been answered via email, no offense meant, but it is true. Just type out a list of questions and send it to the seller. It's more convenient for them and you're more likely to get a detailed response, because they will have time to answer those questions when they have time.

Talking on the phone is a huge time sink and its a pain in the ass to get things ready.

I'll give you a personal example from yesterday -

I see on the interwebs yesterday morning that a junkyard dealing in classic British cars is shutting down. I'm looking for something specific and normally prefer to email someone about it, because it takes 2-minutes. But alas, no email address/website, so phone it is. I call the guy in the morning during a short break from work and ask him if he has X, the answer is no. Then he proceeds to start talking to me about what I am building/why/when/where/who. I kept trying to politely wrap up the phone conversation, but the guy on the other end kept yammering. I finally got it to a close and it ended up taking 15 minutes of my work day to get a "No" answer to my question.

This whole thing could have been solved in 2-5 minutes total via email.

Get off of my lawn with your telephone.

[Joe in PNG]

Business wise, I'm not the biggest fan of the phone. I would much prefer to email or text, in which case I have a record of what is being said, ect. I don't have to go hunt down a pen to write down an indecipherable note to lose later.