The paranoid narcissim in this thread in incredible. I have no idea how some people function at all if the idea of a phone call unravels them.

Majority scam

This was a teacher that told me in the 90s. “Phone calls are an invasion. When you call someone you’re saying ‘stop everything you’re doing and talk to me’. This was specially true when Caller ID was not a thing.”

Leaving a message equals to a DM or text. The recipient can respond later, but a call, it must be at that moment. It’s synchronous.

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.

ETA: Also, the immediacy of phone calls make them mainly used for emergencies. If I get a call from someone I know the first thought is “oh god what’s wrong?”

So I don’t call people because I don’t want to freak them out.

How? Asynchronous communication is better for a lot of people. And now that we have really good choices for that, it's hard to ignore.

A phone call demands that you drop everything in that moment and pay close attention to the person on the other end. If they ramble, deviate, breathe heavily, have a lot of background noise, etc, you're stuck with that experience for the duration. Also, recording without consent is illegal in a lot of places, so you have to be able to write things down in order to refer back to the conversation if it contains any important information.

In contrast, everything else is self-documenting, can be read through multiple times, and can be handled when there is time to focus on that task. As a bonus: most people can read and understand text faster than they can listen. So it's just more efficient.

I 'member when they used to be called PMs.

I guess they aren't private anymore.

For the workplace, calls are king. If you're a professional, calling another professional, it's the easiest and fastest way to exchange information back and forth. Long email chains that take several days to reach their conclusion are inefficient. If you need something done, in the work/business arena, just call. Younger generations are entering the workforce for first time and are scared to make or answer calls. It's embarrassing.

Sure, outside of work, keep calls to a bare minimum. Family usually text first to arrange a phone call.

People have no back bone anymore. Oh no, I'm getting telemarketing calls... Just hang up.

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 rest of the house) and if 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 if 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 wonder 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.

Why are people so offended over the fact there are some ppl who don't like phone calls? 🤷‍♀️ who cares

About the same time that 99% of the incoming voice calls are scammers.

For me it's a few reasons:

1. It demands my attention right here, right now
2. I don't know that it's going to happen, I cannot prepare
3. Usually during the call I'm forced to hold the phone, meaning I can't look stuff up or write stuff down easily
4. I fidn listening way harder than reading, and the quality of calls doesn't help with that

I much prefer text because it give some time to delay answering until it's convenient for me, look up answers to any questions I may have, and because I can re-read and think about stuff.

Calling is like an interrupt forcing me to drop everything there and then and immediately provide an answer, messaging is something I poll every now and then when I'm not overloaded or focused so I can actually take the time to answer.

Easy:

Between ages 13 and 18 if I received a phone call it was because I was in trouble, so now when I get one there is a pang of guilt and panic over whatever it is I could have possibly done

Why though?

What is so hard about getting a call and talking to someone?

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

Its my right to be not reachable, outside of work i will take time for your matter when its fitting for me.

And im forgetful and prefer to be able read important information again.

Thats why my phone is always on mute and my voice recorder tells people my email address.