Shall we have a moment of silence for the “tragic demise” of the phone call?

I am not old (quite yet), but I can remember a time, not too long ago, when there were only two ways to make phone calls: from a rectangular, metal and glass box on most street corners, or from a phone anchored to the kitchen wall with a long cord (that twisted and tangled like nobody’s business) to the handheld receiver. While we were a few decades past the “crank the handle to ring and speak to the operator to connect the call” stage, I did spend a decent part of my childhood making calls with a rotary dial.

Since then, we’ve moved from handheld corded phones to wireless to VOIP (Voice Over IP – think Vonage), and from “portable” mobile phones in suitcase-like bags to smart watches with their own phone numbers. So many advances in technology with one aim in mind: to allow us to speak, in real time, with anyone else on the planet. But yet, has even this mode of communication become outdated?

The “demise” of the phone call?

According to a recent article in Inc magazine, the generation known as Millennials doesn’t seem to have much use for verbal conversations by phone these days. An interesting theory, to be sure. The article’s author, John Brandon, suggests some reasons for this:

• Millennials think faster because of their youth. So, they lean toward more rapid communication methods.
• They are looking for results and fast responses more than conversations.
• They are concerned that a potential (and unpleasant) difference of opinion may develop – so it’s better just to say what you want to say and move on.

Now whether these reasons are limited to just the small, informal survey group the author contacted, or they’re held more by Millennials in general, we can only speculate. But it is interesting to ponder just how big an impact the increase in communication speed and methods has had on “regular” conversations. We’ve already seen how much the “140-character” dialogues have led to big declines in grammar, sentence structures, and just writing in general. Perhaps the same is coming true in (non-online) chats as well.

In any case, there will always be a need for actual conversations. While one can order a pizza with a voice-enabled app, or even go to “confession” online, nothing can replace the fascinating aspects of a real, face-to-face dialogue. It can be, at times, easy to misinterpret the meaning of a text without an emoji or two, but so much can be – and is – conveyed with a simple shrug of the shoulders, narrowing of the eyes, even folding arms at a particular moment.

While many animals communicate – be it dolphins clicking or the unusual “alphabet” that trained primates have learned – no other creatures can interact with each other on as high a level as humans. It will be a shame if we let that remarkable ability slowly die out… just because we might think “it takes too long” to make our point in a conversation.

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