Matthew Yglesias today: "Megan Hustad bemoans the decline of the phone call as a tool of business...
Apparently she learned vital skills while eavesdropping and first made a mark for herself as a placer-of-phone-calls for her boss. Personally, I couldn't be more thrilled with the phone's decline. I used to be painfully shy as a person, and while I've largely gotten over that IRL I still find it incredibly stressful to talk to people on the phone.
Instead, I email. I SMS. I blog. I Twitter. I write on Facebook wall pages. I use IM and GChat constantly. Anything but the phone. I'm sure I'm not the only one who feels this way, and in the years to come we phone-haters will inherit the earth. I call it progress."
One of the commenters wrote: "Leaving a voicemail for any reason in 2008 is unconscionable."
I agree with about the phone, though I don't have the anxiety problem. Email you fit into your day -- the phone always interrupts what you're doing. And VMs result in phone tag, which is a worthless and frustrating waste of time.
Interesting how technology can change culture. I think we may improve the efficiency of our interpersonal communications, but communication may become brusquer as a result of the improvement. Reminds me of this great comic...