Yackety yack
When I was a teenager my parents couldn't pry the telephone away from me - I spent hours upon hours upon hours talking to all my friends. It was especially important for me as a teen because we lived in a rural area and I went to a regional high school so I didn't really have any friends who lived within walking distance from me.
Even when I moved to Ottawa, I would spend hours and hours on the phone. There were countless nights I spent the entire night talking away (back in the days when I could just cut class if I was too tired to get up the next day ;)
And suddenly, in the last couple of years, I realize that I don't like talking on the phone any more. Have I just grown to dependent on online chat and email? It's possibly, although in reality I've been online chatting for so long and a lot of those overlapped with the phone years. Is it just that I have so little down time compared to before that I have a hard time talking on the phone because it's just one thing, and if I'm chatting online really I can be chatting with more than one person, watching tv, reading blogs, etc?
I think the latter might be the most accurate theory and I think it's a bit sad that I rarely give anything my full attention anymore - everything is a bit diluted and that sucks. But I'm not sure I have it in me to stop doing it either. But I'm trying lately, so that's a start. ;)
5 comments:
I too don't talk on the phone like I used to in highschool. I was in the same boat re. rural living and no friends around. But I think that that was our way to reach out at that time when texting, Iming, etc. weren't around. However, after doing phone surveys in university ("on a scale of one to five would you rate that excellent, very good, good, fair or poor") I became anti-phone.
but I have a theory.
In HS, we didn't spend as much time with our families (ie. didn't have a companion) and would seclude ourselves in our bedrooms and in university we could see our friends as we pleased (even if it meant cutting classes). And as an adult, if we're not on the phone, some of us still have the companionship of a mate. I've noticed that since becoming single again, I'm on the phone more often. Certainly not to HS days but more than before and I think it's because of my need to reach out because I don't have someone to have an instantaneous conversation with about what I just saw on TV or my day or whatnot. Does that make sense? I wonder if phone usage differs by relationship status? Food for thought...
I think you definitely have a point about the instantaneous conversation and I'd even go so far as to say part of what makes it so that I never feel like I'm cut off is my laptop. I almost always have someone at the tip of my fingers to talk to, and I've noticed if I wake up in the middle of the night and there is nobody to msg (should I even have wanted to) I feel a little more lonely, just because of the lack of opportunity.
I find that I don't talk on the phone as much either... although if I am at work on a weekend or evening - when it is often really dead and I only have work to do if someone calls in - then I have been known to spend hours talking on the phone to one of my co-workers who is a good friend of mine, I just put her on hold if any calls do come in.
I'm totally on the phone way more when Steve is away from home. But I totally hear you on the multi-tasking too - i can chat, email, blog, upload pictures, all at the same time. A busy mom has to do what she can, right?
I have a good friend who is in town but we have just as good or even better conversations via email. And we do see each other each week. Just a different level of wit.
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