No One Uses The Phone Anymore

I am just going to use my little platform here to rant for a few seconds. I just completed the most painful freelance project I’ve ever worked on. I followed the same process I always do. There was only one difference, my client didn’t like to use a phone. We have so many communications options these days. SMS Email. IM. Therefore, increasingly the phone call is too viewed as an intrusive form of communications for many folks.

“I literally never use the phone,” Jonathan Adler, the interior designer, told me. (Alas, by phone, but it had to be.) “Sometimes I call my mother on the way to work because she’ll be happy to chitty chat. But I just can’t think of anyone else who’d want to talk to me.” Then again, he doesn’t want to be called, either. “I’ve learned not to press ‘ignore’ on my cellphone because then people know that you’re there.”

“I remember when I was growing up, the rule was, ‘Don’t call anyone after 10 p.m.,’” Mr. Adler said. “Now the rule is, ‘Don’t call anyone. Ever.’”

I have never been a huge fan of phone calls. But I just finished a project with a client I only spoke to once on the phone. Close to a $3,000 project. She would just never return a phone call. She was too darn busy.  Now again, email and text messaging are wonderful communications tools. Don’t get me wrong. But somethings a good old phone call can be more effective and even faster way to communicate.