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Evolution of Communication
Over the weekend, a friend called. This is something out of the ordinary for us, and in fact, the last time he phoned it was to tell me that a mutual acquaintance had been diagnosed with breast cancer. When I saw his name show up on my caller ID, I had a momentary flash of concern. It turned out he just wanted to chat. When did it happen that phone calls became quaint like letter writing or sending birthday cards by mail?
Photo by Kyle Bean
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I hope it’s a quaintness that comes back in style. Text conversations (and emailing) have their places, but in the absence of face-to-face, a phone call is much more intimate.
I was speaking to a neighbor in her twenties and she hardly ever uses her phone to talk. I think that ship has sailed.
Well I’ve become one who has gone over to the dark side and barely talks to anyone on the phone anymore. If it’s important…then, yes. But generally something about people wanting to chat while while they’re doing other odds and ends (like running their kids to practice or other errands) just started bothering me. That being said, I do appreciate the out of the blue phone calls from old friends (however infrequent).
The one person I speak to regularly is my brother.
About twenty years ago, when I was in my mid-20s, my sister and I went through a few months where we barely spoke – we weren’t mad at each other; we were just really busy all the time. When I realized that that’s how families can start to grow apart, I decided to put a stop to it and called her to invite her out to dinner to reconnect. Her husband told me that she wasn’t home (after all, I had called her house because this was the pre-cell-phone era), but told me that he’d give her the message. When she called me back, she asked what was wrong. Nothing, I told her, I just wanted to go out to dinner, just us sisters, and chat. She told me that when her husband gave her the message, he phrased it like this: “Something’s wrong. Your sister wants to talk.” After that, I was always afraid to call just to chat, because I was afraid that he’d scare her like that again, lol.
My brother and I also email and text, but there’s nothing like hearing the sound of his voice.