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I'd be interested in learning the reasons for this trend. Vocal communication seems more efficient than text. There's no pauses between what you say and what th

I'd be interested in learning the reasons for this trend. Vocal communication seems more efficient than text. There's no pauses between what you say and what the other person says. I wonder if that could be a reason for the decline of speaking on the phone...

JoshTriplett 11y ago
Both can be efficient. In text, in some mediums, you and the other person can talk in parallel, which is quite challenging (and unconventional/"impolite" even if possible) in verbal communication. You don't need to wait for a break in the conversation; what you say gets processed in a queue-like fashion by others listening. For that matter, I've been on active IRC channels before where many people are holding several different conversations simultaneously, and nobody considers that rude; that's not really possible in verbal communication. On the other hand, people can be unnecessarily verbose and circumlocutory in text (especially email, as opposed to IM or similar), while in voice you can more easily push for directness.
ekanes 11y ago
The biggest benefit of text is that it's asynchronous. We can converse by email/text/etc without having to sync up when we're both free at the same time.
civilian 11y ago
It's not more efficient if the other person is just rambling at you. As someone who's a good listener and doesn't like to interrupt people, this is a great reason to have digital communication. I can ignore your blathering. If we're doing an IRL 1:1 I'm going to slowly get more frustrated at your run-on thoughts. If anyone has any tips for how to convey "Yes, I got the message, move on to the next thing you were going to say or stop talking." firmly & diplomatically, I'd love to hear it. It's been a lifelong struggle.
- alexashka 11y ago
  You're basically people-pleasing. This is because you don't have the ability to replace the people you feel the need to please at your expense, with people you can have a reciprocal relationship with. I'd say people are in this situation to some extent (and most people their whole lives, let's be honest :)) until they get high enough in their career and maturity to have enough power to have others cater to them and not vice versa. Not cater in the sense that you abuse them and they can't abuse you but in terms of you having the wisdom to establish largely mutually-beneficial relationships and cut out the ones that aren't - win-win. I'd say almost nobody younger than 30 has the ability or the wisdom to do this. As long as you are learning and becoming more and more independent, both financially and 'spiritually', then it'll be fine in due time. If you're not doing that, you most likely bitch and moan to others as means of therapy and guess what, they don't wanna hear it either, they're thinking 'yes I got the message, move on', except you can't move on because you're not moving anywhere really :) ps. What most people do is limit the amount of interaction they have with one another - you bitch to me for an hour a week and I bitch to you a similar amount. That way we both get to de-stress while not overwhelming one another. :P
lotsofpulp 11y ago
I find the biggest advantage of text is for record keeping. People always think their memory is better than it really is, and I love being able to avoid he said she saids by pointing to an email. Especially in business.
6d0debc071 11y ago
> Vocal communication seems more efficient than text. It can be faster, but you're potentially trading clarity and ease of reference - among other things - to get that speed. For example, it's not necessarily very useful for me to sit someone down and talk to them them an hour or so in response to a question on some complex issue, as compared to sending them an email they can read at their leisure and hop around in for reference.

JoshTriplett 11y ago

Both can be efficient. In text, in some mediums, you and the other person can talk in parallel, which is quite challenging (and unconventional/"impolite" even if possible) in verbal communication. You don't need to wait for a break in the conversation; what you say gets processed in a queue-like fashion by others listening. For that matter, I've been on active IRC channels before where many people are holding several different conversations simultaneously, and nobody considers that rude; that's not really possible in verbal communication. On the other hand, people can be unnecessarily verbose and circumlocutory in text (especially email, as opposed to IM or similar), while in voice you can more easily push for directness.

ekanes 11y ago

The biggest benefit of text is that it's asynchronous. We can converse by email/text/etc without having to sync up when we're both free at the same time.

civilian 11y ago

It's not more efficient if the other person is just rambling at you. As someone who's a good listener and doesn't like to interrupt people, this is a great reason to have digital communication. I can ignore your blathering. If we're doing an IRL 1:1 I'm going to slowly get more frustrated at your run-on thoughts. If anyone has any tips for how to convey "Yes, I got the message, move on to the next thing you were going to say or stop talking." firmly & diplomatically, I'd love to hear it. It's been a lifelong struggle.

alexashka 11y ago
You're basically people-pleasing. This is because you don't have the ability to replace the people you feel the need to please at your expense, with people you can have a reciprocal relationship with. I'd say people are in this situation to some extent (and most people their whole lives, let's be honest :)) until they get high enough in their career and maturity to have enough power to have others cater to them and not vice versa. Not cater in the sense that you abuse them and they can't abuse you but in terms of you having the wisdom to establish largely mutually-beneficial relationships and cut out the ones that aren't - win-win. I'd say almost nobody younger than 30 has the ability or the wisdom to do this. As long as you are learning and becoming more and more independent, both financially and 'spiritually', then it'll be fine in due time. If you're not doing that, you most likely bitch and moan to others as means of therapy and guess what, they don't wanna hear it either, they're thinking 'yes I got the message, move on', except you can't move on because you're not moving anywhere really :) ps. What most people do is limit the amount of interaction they have with one another - you bitch to me for an hour a week and I bitch to you a similar amount. That way we both get to de-stress while not overwhelming one another. :P

lotsofpulp 11y ago

I find the biggest advantage of text is for record keeping. People always think their memory is better than it really is, and I love being able to avoid he said she saids by pointing to an email. Especially in business.

6d0debc071 11y ago

> Vocal communication seems more efficient than text. It can be faster, but you're potentially trading clarity and ease of reference - among other things - to get that speed. For example, it's not necessarily very useful for me to sit someone down and talk to them them an hour or so in response to a question on some complex issue, as compared to sending them an email they can read at their leisure and hop around in for reference.