I much prefer E-Mail communication to phone communication. E-Mail communication is asynchronous. I may answer E-Mail whenever I choose. With E-Mail, I get a full record of the conversation for later reference.
Phone communication is always an interrupt. The phone rings, and you immediately answer it, even it's spam. Telephones presume they're higher priority than whatever you're doing at the moment.
With my phone, someone may call me at 9am when I'm planning to sleep late, even on weekends.
I even noticed that when looking for a job. Headhunters always rely 100% on phone communication. Tech-savvy hiring managers primarily use E-Mail, and then schedule a phone call at a convenient time.
Gmail's "spam filter" is really high quality. There is no "phone spam filter". (There is caller ID. You have to pay extra for it where I live. Plus, your phone still rings even if it's a call you'd rather filter out.)
Similarly, I prefer to be contacted via blog comment or E-Mail, instead of gmail chat.
I'm considering entirely dropping my landline phone, and exclusively using my cell phone. I can turn off my cell phone when I don't want to receive calls. You can turn off the ringer on your landline phone, but this isn't normally done. Currently, I get my Internet access via DSL and my local phone company. I could switch to cable-based Internet access. (Even though there is a State telecommunications monopoly/oligopoly, there is some competition between cable vendords and phone vendors. Internet may be distributed via either, and it's now feasible to distribute TV shows via Internet.) My parents aren't comfortable abandoning the landline phone and exclusively using their cell phone.
Sunday, January 11, 2009
Phones vs. E-Mail
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4 comments:
I've kept my landline. I'm on DSL and cable hasn't came down my road yet. I still don't know that I'll drop it. Every once in a while I need to use a fax and it's nice being able to utilize one. There may be a way to send and receive faxes via email but I haven't looked into it. Also, there's the possibility of cell phone failure - as well as the 911 option available on landline. I'm basically keeping the line as a back up means for communication..
You can't turn off your cellphone when you don't want to receive calls.
All cell phones can now be remotely activated if the right firmware is uploaded.
I would recommend giving everyone who calls you a passphrase, and if they don't use it, you immediately hang up. Like in Terminator the TV series, they give each other the numerical date like 1-14-2008.
Of course, all calls are logged, I am not aware of a PGP for phone calls.
One more thing i have started doing, is I leave Alex Jones' infowars stream running on my other PC and when people call, I leave the phone next to the speaker. 10 minutes later I will hang up.
Sure it is not energy efficient but it gives me great satisfaction.
And besides, Obama is going to fix all of the energy problems. Right? ;)
With phones people can leave you voicemail, which I find highly irritating listening to these disjointed and sometimes very long messages once you have accessed them using the right menus etc. I too prefer email, but many think email communications are inferior to phones including my manager.
And I'm surprised people still have landlines. But if you insist, get VoIP might save you some money (they all include caller ID).
Otherwise, I'm definitely for dropping landline altogether.
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