Wireless Warning

Hat tip to Mark Shier

Talk Is Dead

Farhad Manjoo applauds the apparent death of voice mail:

Every new way we develop of talking to one another—e-mail, text messaging, instant messaging, Twitter, etc.—is faster and more useful than leaving an audio message on someone's phone.

Improving on voice mail is just the beginning. All those means of "talking [sic] to one another" are all also much faster than actually talking to one another. If you have to converse on the phone or in person, you waste time saying hello, asking how the other person is, and then listening to the answer. Then once you say what you have to say, the other person might inconvenience you even further by having something to say in response. They might disagree with you, or offer an insight you hadn't thought of that will immediately alter your own thinking. The exchange might go in an entirely different direction as the result of the unanticipated dynamics of your exchange. These are all incredibly inefficient wastes of your valuable time. Don't stand for it any longer!

Would Jesus Tweet? It Sure Is Efficient

Evidently voice mail is going the way of IBM Selectric typewriters, being overtaken by texting, e-mails, Facebook messages, and Twits, young people's (them again) preferred methods of communication. Some people don't even listen to their voice mails anymore or await programs that will translate spoken messages into type.

Why meet, why touch, anyway? Better to sit at home with a computer on your lap and BlackBerry within reach. Why not hold the whole world at bay behind walls of pixels? Jill Colvin's article about this phenomenon buried the lead -- or maybe she wrote it this way on purpose. Her final paragraphs:

For Charlie Park, 30, a Web developer in Williamsburg, Va., a text message is more efficient and — equally important — more respectful of the recipient’s time.

“You never send an e-mail that says, ‘Hey, e-mail me back!’ You’re always sending information,” he said.

But even Mr. Park admits that sometimes, there is value in voice.

When his eldest daughter, Lucy, now 5, was learning to talk, he had to take a business trip. While away, she left him a message: “I love you daddy. I miss you. Come home soon.”

Mr. Park said he kept the message for several years and would replay it again and again.

“There is something nice about hearing people’s voices,” he said.

You think?