I’m 30 but never got used to the feeling of modern smartphones against out ears.
I’m almost 5 decades into this weird mess and yeah, I still am not that comfortable with sliding a cold, smooth, oily, touch-screen with all kinds of sensitive buttons and screen options across my ear when having a phone call. I’ve always hated it compared to the comfort of an old corded-phone speaker that was pleasantly curved for privacy and had a solid, comfortable handle. You could throw that thing against the wall, drop it while you’re talking, set it down for an hour and forget about it (for those kinds of calls.)
On the other hand, I almost never get phone calls anymore. People straight up stopped calling each other. I get maybe one a week at work, but even there most calls are scheduled Teams or Zoom calls. People hate talking to each other given the choice, everyone has withdrawn to a world of text messages and private discord servers.
Not saying things were better in the old days, but this is a major factor in our societal de-socialization crisis.
I wonder if there’s anybody that’s comfortable with slab-style phones being used as phones.
If you’re over a certain age, you grew up with proper telephone handsets. Even early cell phones had a vaguely ergonomic shape. Like, the original Motorola Razr didn’t open to 180 degrees, and had a “chin” near the bottom so you could get good contact with your ear while keeping your mouth near the microphone.
Then there’s people under a certain age who grew up with texting, instant messages, etc. For them, it’s not the shape that’s an issue, it’s that using a phone as a phone that’s odd. They’d much rather do anything other than voice calls.
Not saying things were better in the old days, but this is a major factor in our societal de-socialization crisis.
Nah, I completely disagree with that. I think phones were always a terrible means of communication, but they were the most used thing for a while because we didn’t have anything better for communication at a distance. Phones force you into an audio-only form of communication where you don’t get gestures, facial expression, or a moving mouth to watch. That cuts out a lot of the nuance of the communication. In addition, it’s immediate so there’s no time to think and interpret what someone is trying to say. It’s also initiated by the caller and the callee has to drop whatever they’re doing and respond immediately. It’s just bad.
Video calls with something like Facetime have some of those issues. The positive is that you get facial expressions and some body language as cues The downside is that it’s still expected that you respond immediately. But, it seems like there’s a convention to ask before doing a video call, or to schedule one. That means you’re generally not pulled into a conversation when you’re not ready. Even more so with video meetings like Zoom, where they’re almost never spontaneous, and always scheduled ahead of time. Phone calls are often spontaneous, and can catch someone at a terrible time.
Text messages in some ways are even worse than phone calls, because you don’t even get tone of voice or volume as cues to what someone means. OTOH, they’re not as immediate. Sure, sometimes you’re watching the little chat bubbles waiting for a response. But, the asynchronous nature of that kind of chat means there’s still a bit of a chance to think before you respond.
IMO, people of all ages abandoned phone calls because phone calls are just bad. Much better are either asynchronous ways of communicating where you can take a chance to think before you respond, or high-bandwidth forms of communication involving video where you can see gestures, facial expressions, etc.
I’m almost 5 decades into this weird mess and yeah, I still am not that comfortable with sliding a cold, smooth, oily, touch-screen with all kinds of sensitive buttons and screen options across my ear when having a phone call. I’ve always hated it compared to the comfort of an old corded-phone speaker that was pleasantly curved for privacy and had a solid, comfortable handle. You could throw that thing against the wall, drop it while you’re talking, set it down for an hour and forget about it (for those kinds of calls.)
On the other hand, I almost never get phone calls anymore. People straight up stopped calling each other. I get maybe one a week at work, but even there most calls are scheduled Teams or Zoom calls. People hate talking to each other given the choice, everyone has withdrawn to a world of text messages and private discord servers.
Not saying things were better in the old days, but this is a major factor in our societal de-socialization crisis.
I wonder if there’s anybody that’s comfortable with slab-style phones being used as phones.
If you’re over a certain age, you grew up with proper telephone handsets. Even early cell phones had a vaguely ergonomic shape. Like, the original Motorola Razr didn’t open to 180 degrees, and had a “chin” near the bottom so you could get good contact with your ear while keeping your mouth near the microphone.
Then there’s people under a certain age who grew up with texting, instant messages, etc. For them, it’s not the shape that’s an issue, it’s that using a phone as a phone that’s odd. They’d much rather do anything other than voice calls.
Nah, I completely disagree with that. I think phones were always a terrible means of communication, but they were the most used thing for a while because we didn’t have anything better for communication at a distance. Phones force you into an audio-only form of communication where you don’t get gestures, facial expression, or a moving mouth to watch. That cuts out a lot of the nuance of the communication. In addition, it’s immediate so there’s no time to think and interpret what someone is trying to say. It’s also initiated by the caller and the callee has to drop whatever they’re doing and respond immediately. It’s just bad.
Video calls with something like Facetime have some of those issues. The positive is that you get facial expressions and some body language as cues The downside is that it’s still expected that you respond immediately. But, it seems like there’s a convention to ask before doing a video call, or to schedule one. That means you’re generally not pulled into a conversation when you’re not ready. Even more so with video meetings like Zoom, where they’re almost never spontaneous, and always scheduled ahead of time. Phone calls are often spontaneous, and can catch someone at a terrible time.
Text messages in some ways are even worse than phone calls, because you don’t even get tone of voice or volume as cues to what someone means. OTOH, they’re not as immediate. Sure, sometimes you’re watching the little chat bubbles waiting for a response. But, the asynchronous nature of that kind of chat means there’s still a bit of a chance to think before you respond.
IMO, people of all ages abandoned phone calls because phone calls are just bad. Much better are either asynchronous ways of communicating where you can take a chance to think before you respond, or high-bandwidth forms of communication involving video where you can see gestures, facial expressions, etc.