For me I hate phone calls because it’s someone demanding I drop what I’m doing to address whatever they want. Keep in mind, 99% of phone calls I get are at work form co-workers.

The number of “quick calls” that are actually quick I can count on 1 hand, and still have room for more. I have tasks to accomplish, things to do. And I’m spread so thin between all the things I do, there’s a fair chance I’m going to forget something about what you asked/told me. If it’s in text form I can review it when I loop back to it. You need me to check/validate/run something, cool. I have record of what, when, and if I completed it. Just because you have a question does not make it an emergency on my part.

As for my phone phone, the only folks who ever call me are either telemarketers or scams. If a friend called I’d probably answer (if I have the time). But I think most of my friends are in the same boat, we have so much to do these days (non-recreation) that it’s just not easy to find time. A lot of my friends have side-hustles or a second job or are in class (like me) in order to stay competitive. When I was a kid, I remember my parents could unwind at the end of the day, friends would just come over to hang out. It just ain’t like that no more.

I 'member when they used to be called PMs.

I guess they aren’t private anymore.

How is skywriting so low on the list?

One thing that severely degrades the usefulness of the phone network is all the spam calls. It’s all I get these days. I can’t just call someone and have them pick up because nobody answers calls from unknown numbers.

It’s especially frustrating when I’m waiting for a call, like for a delivery, and have to pick up every unknown number.

Voicemail should be lower on that list, I’d rather take a call than check voicemail any day.

Combination of spam callers being more prevalent and the younger generation has unbelievably high social anxiety as a direct result of them mostly being raised indoors and alone with family.

I’m not saying that the way we older folks grew up was inherently better at all times, but it certainly forced us to converse with strangers and develop those skills.

My little twin brothers and my little sister were actually afraid to call a pizza place and order pizza when they were younger. They still don’t really do phone calls aside from work related things or direct family.

Because the more serious discussion the more time I want to have to be able to convey myself concisely and prepared. Phone calls can be awkward and reactionary. plus how the fuck have we not yet solved phone audio quality and consistency problems.

For me, it’s autism.

Basically, as soon as other reliable methods became widely adopted. No, I don’t have any phone call related anxiety or whatever, I’ll call someone if I really need to, I would just rather not. I’d much rather get a text that says, “Hey, we’re meeting up at 7pm to go out and do, XYZ, do you want to come?” than a phone call that starts with that and turns to “So anyway, did I tell you my mom blah, blah, blah… And I don’t know what to say, because I kind of want to go, but it would be a lot blah, blah, blah.”

Phone calls with friends and family have a way of spiraling off into tangents when I don’t necessarily have the time to entertain them, but don’t want to be a dick all the time telling people I don’t have time at the moment to listen to them. If there’s a self-service section to a company’s website or app, I can usually do whatever I need faster than it would take me to get through the automated menus and hold music to call and have them do it. Like my pharmacy, if I want to refill a prescription online, I log in, check a box and hit submit. Done. If I call them, I need to go through three menus to get patched through to the pharmacy, tell them what I want, hold for a moment while they help someone in the store, give them my info and wait for them to look it up, etc.

When I plan to meet up with people, I make plenty of time to talk to them and listen to whatever. When I get what I think is going to be a short phone call that devolves into tangents, I don’t necessarily have the time to entertain whether the fact that my friend’s cousin had his toe amputated due to gangrene means he should get the spot on his nipple tested for leprosy, or if he should just improve his personal hygiene and see if it washes off in the shower.

If something really is going to be a pain to communicate via text, schedule that conversation and we can have a call to discuss it, but I’m not answering phone calls whenever somebody calls out of the blue unless I’m interviewing for jobs or expecting a call about some sort of emergency.

I have never liked to talk on the phone. I hate talking to someone when I can’t see their face… which is weird because I did VO for years and often did it with someone directing me remotely, but somehow that was different.

Because I take no joy in small talk, waste of time. I type basically as fast or even faster than I talk. I can maintaine multiple conversations at once. And I can answer when I want instead of being locked up with one person that gets its way.

I don’t like phone calls either. But now people are starting to send voice messages. Might just as well call me if you’re going to steal 3 minutes with every message, with info which could have been typed in 5 words. I ignore voice messages, I tell people I do yet they still get angry with “why didn’t you reply, all the messages is only 7 minutes of listening time it’s not that bad”. FFS

Personally since chat/messages are now ubiquituous, call implies you need my reply/attention/input now, and/or need the vocal tonal part of communication.

If you call, and it’s clear there was neither reason, I’m annoyed. There was no reason to interrupt me, as I’ll assume there’s an emergency or urgent situation and pick up dropping whatever I’m doing.

There are exceptions of course, but nowadays those (like family get-togethers or check-ins) have honestly moved to group video chats so they’re not “calls”, either.

Easy, back in the day all we had was phone call for instant communication, so not much to compare to.

Also, you didn’t call a person, you called a house or place of work. This meant it was used more sparingly (need to keep the line open/share with the test of the house) and of you were away, then that phone call couldn’t bother you. This also meant people were used to not being able to reach who they wanted to talk to, so of you felt like letting the answering machine get it, no one would think anything of it. You were either on the phone or present in the moment, not trying to talk with a number of people who don’t know each other.

Now everyone has a phone at their hip. You can call someone and if that someone sends it to voicemail, you know they did and it can become a point of drama depending on the circumstance. Now I can be in the middle of text conversations with a half dozen people across half the world and so when my phone unexpectedly rings then I won’t who is this asshole who thinks they deserve my full attention over these other folks, even though the other person has no way of knowing about those conversations. We are expected to juggle concurrent conversations and a phone call derails that.

When I need to solve a problem I use the fastest method. Talking about the problem. Anyone who thinks they can do that as quickly through texts or emails is just not interested in quickly resolving it. No way anyone can solve a problem faster with anything less than a conversation.