The other day, I got the shock of my life. The plastic thing in my pocket began to make a continuous buzzing noise.
How dare anyone disturb my silence, peace, and tranquillity without any warning?
It got me thinking about how our good old pal, the phone, is kinda forgotten in the age of texting and emailing.
Nowadays, there’s an unwritten rule – don’t you dare dial someone without first dropping them a text or an email to say that you’re going to phone. Which kind of negates the whole object of the exercise.
In fact, I believe that there are millions of Generation Z young people out there who are not aware of the phone’s primary function at all.
The true magic of a call lies in the ability to express oneself, conveying expressions, tone, and warmth effortlessly. In a world drowning in abrupt emails and emotionless texts, a courteous phone call can often convey a message with far greater impact than a hastily read email.
Nowhere is this more true than in the world of lobbying. Of course, a face-to-face meeting with a councillor is always better, but the phone is a close second and the email is nowhere.
We speak approximately five times faster than we write. So, why subject our thumbs to the strain of constant messaging when a quick telephone conversation often outpaces the time it takes to compose a rapid WhatsApp response?
I bet all those politicians heavily relying on WhatsApp during COVID-19 are kicking themselves for not using phones instead. A quick phone call and a discreet chat at the water cooler could have saved them significant trouble.
I have a theory that once something exists in an electronic form it can never be erased. It is there forever. It can be only a matter of time before WhatsApp is forced to release important messages in the interest of something like ‘national security’.
Unless you ‘accidentally’ delete your messages. And then you face accusations of a cover-up, which is even worse.
So you have to be always careful with your words, on or off the record.
The merits of using the phone extend beyond efficiency. Whether conveyed angrily or gently, spoken communication often proves to be more reliable and secure, debunking the temptation to lie or misrepresent oneself through written messages.
Let’s rediscover the charm of the spoken word and the simplicity of a genuine phone call in an era of digital complexities and drivel.
Have a good weekend.
Tom
by the Planning PR guru 