When a phone isn't a phone

I wrote the draft of this yesterday, so I’m pretty sure it still counts for my writing a blog post every day this year goal.

I realized something quite major for me today. I really hate picking up the phone. In fact, I have become afraid of it. It is threatening to me.

Every time I pick up my cell phone, someone needs me to work on something or to help solve an issue that could easily be worked through by simply googling the topic or with a few e-mail exchanges (or better yet, working through a forum so that the issues that we resolve can be shared out with others).

I guess I have known this for a while, but I am stating it now: Voice is inefficent.

Voice is beautiful and personal, but when all it conveys is information then it is just not worth the breath it takes to produce. We should save our voices for oratory and humor. We should save our voices for storytelling and nuanced debate. But for mere information, let’s use email or txt. Let’s use discussion forums. Let’s blog and edit wikis.

So, I guess I don’t just mean “Stop calling me.” I mean, communicate with me.

I mean choose the right tool for the right job. Becuase right now, I am just using the voice feature on my phone as a voicemail box. That’s all. Is that wrong?