Phone is used for remote, synchronous and verbal communication.
It is observed more and more that people shy away from calling somebody, but rather use asynchronous communication tools as IM and Email.
However, the directness of communication via phone can avoid a lot of conflicts and misunderstandings.
Via phone, there is still a certain degree of non-verbal communication, which is (almost) completely lacking in the other mentioned tools.
Active listening, a quality improving technique in conversations, is not easily done in asynchronous communication.
In global organizations, time zone differences can be an important obstacle to phone usage.
Being always home.
Cellphones, with their rapidly expanding list of add-on features became the mobile device of choice - knocking out several other contenders to mobile computing (remember the palm pilot?). As phone networks modernize, the technical barriers between voice and data communications are rapidly disappearing, and most phone devices will be coupled with computers, email, video, and [SMS]to name a few.
When to call:
When someone's presence indicator says it is a good time to call.
To build or improve relations with someone you can't meet.
When not to call:
*if you are going to leave a short message: why call? people can recieve your message faster by email or SMS.
*If you are going to leave a long meesage: don't call - nobody likes to transcribe a five minute voicemail.
*if you are going to leave a timely message
That leaves: using voicemail to convey an emotion.
Page Last Updated: Sep 20 9:36pm by mlpilling