A few months ago I commented to my sweetie I felt hesitant to call people. You know, just dial their number. It’s not like I was just calling for random chit-chat; there was a purpose to my call. I found myself texting them first to check-in when might be a good time to call. Other times I’ve emailed first to set up a time to call. I even text my mother sometimes to see if she is around to Skype. I think it’s an example of what Sherry Turkle describes here:
We’ve become accustomed to a new way of being “alone together.”
This topic popped up again today when a fabulous soul called me right out of the blue. We had been emailing trying to suss out a day to catch-up and do some juicy conversation and harvesting planning. She said she didn’t want to go back and forth again on email so just called me. How delightful! I was so glad she did… hearing her voice, sensing the emotion and excitement on what the next few weeks had in store her. I would have missed all soul-to-soul connection had we stayed in email land.
We talked about this whole feeling-strange-about-just-calling-people concept. She raised an excellent point: many of us have caller ID on our phones and we have the power to ignore the phone call if we are truly busy or simply don’t want to chat. So she’s making a point to start calling people again.
I’m in. Let’s bring back the lost art of the phone call and have more real conversations in our days.
2 replies on “The Lost Art of…. Phone Calls?”
I couldn’t agree more, Amanda! Let’s start a movement. Occupy your phones, people! 🙂
PS: How did you like the Sherry Turkle book? It’s high on my list of Books To Read, and your mention of her reminded me that I’m really keen to read it.