I came across this interesting Washington Post article in one of my news feeds yesterday (can’t remember if it was Apple or Google):
https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/09/25/cell-phone-etiquette-call-voicemail/
I’ll admit visual voicemail isn’t as important to me as I once thought it was.
Culture clash time!
Texts are for low-priority information that does not require an immediate response. I may not see it for hours. For those rare texts that are important, I have my phone programmed to make a special sound.
If it’s important, call. If I don’t answer, leave voice mail. If you don’t leave voice mail I won’t call back. If it wasn’t worth a voice mail, it was of no importance.
I will always leave voice mail. If you miss my call, do not call back until sufficient time has elapsed for a message to have been left. If you don’t get a voice mail flag, it either was a spoofer or your voice mail is broken. If you get a voice mail flag, listen to the message before calling back, it may spare you having to call back at all.
Etiquette? More like irritant.
I was curious so I went to the effort to bypass the access wall. Normally I just close the page if I get any kind of wall. If I consider an article worth pointing people to, I hunt down an unrestricted source, such as The New Phone Call Etiquette: Text First And Never Leave A Voice Mail | Matzav.com
I think much of that is generational. I also think the reality is younger people, particularly, tend to text first talk second. And; like mobile phones effectively replacing landlines I don’t think this reality will change.
I’m uncertain what’s different about my internet connection but I’m not getting any kind of paywall or access wall (I am not a Washington Post subscriber). If I had, I would have searched for another source.
Nailed it. I found the article to be very interesting, and it’s fascinating to see how the different generations use the technology.
I read that article yesterday. I think it is a little over the top with some of the rationales behind their “rules” but is somewhat accurate as to how younger folks use phones. I disagree with the underlying premise that it is every other generation’s responsibility to conform to the young folks rather than all parties being flexible and consider the practices of those they are communicating with.
I think that people need to think about their “audience”. If older people – leave a voice mail. Younger-- a text. It also depends on the amount of info to be given to a person.
It seems like the article is telling all people to accommodate the young folks, but no such advice for young people to adapt to accommodate older people.
I don’t subscribe to the idea other generations should necessarily cater to younger generations.
I do find many of those I regularly communicate with prefer to follow up with a text message rather than leave voicemail making visual voicemail less important to me than it used to be. These folks are not necessarily members of younger generations themselves (nor am I) though, perhaps, having members of younger generations in their households influences their preference.
Anyway, I found the article thought provoking.
Well, according to my kids, it’s bad form to use punctuation in text messages too…I just ignore them and add commas and periods anyway. 