The The Verge columnist, Thomas Ricker, suggested that in the age of the popularity of smartphones, forcing people to use audio calls and distract from other things is to behave importunate and inefficiently. Riker supported his words with marketing research. According to the journalist, in 2017 there is a huge number of ways to get the attention of a person without distracting him instantly from other activities. Calling on the phone is not good for this..

Telephone calls were bad for many people. Why call when you can write and get a quick response? Columnist M24 Anna Lebedeva also considers harmful phone calls.

For some time now my phone works in silent mode. I hear less and less of the living voices. But almost every couple of hours I read Instagram comments from my friends, I try to open WhatsApp notifications and simultaneously reply to Facebook Messenger.

Even my mother, for whom modern technology does not care that flying to the moon, having mastered the smartphone, I suddenly began to write: "Hello. How are you? Could you take me to the store? ".

Unlike the older generation, who is new to everything, and they can not play enough with new devices, confident users of social networks write more for speed. But this does not always work.

By the way, I answered my mother's request a few hours later, when I was released from my affairs. Somehow it was not with a hand to be fingered in letters. She would call me, as soon as the thought came to write, everything would be much faster.

- Hi! How are you? What's new? - I write to my former colleague, whom I have not seen for several years. The reason for writing was her renewed status - a sad poem on the theme of love. Immediately calling was somehow not clever, because since our ways broke up, we learn about each other thanks to the World Wide Web.

- Hi. All is well, - in a nutshell answers me a friend. Then he writes that she bought tickets to the theater, and on the weekend with her son will jump on the trampoline.

- How do you? - I get in a courtesy sign.

- Good. I must somehow meet.

- Yes, yes, it is obligatory. Let's write off in a week.

And so it passes week after week ... Some believe that phone calls increase the chance to meet twice, or even the second. But this is not so. If you do not want to meet personally for any reason, even if you call, it will not work.

One of my friends always succinctly responds to messages on social networks, preferring to communicate only by phone. Did not call - then do not want to see me.

For some, phone calls are a token of attention. One of these friends after a friendly meeting I wrote: "Thank you very much! Everything was delicious. We want to come to you again ». In response, I received a sad smile and a request to always call in person, because it is much more pleasant than any letters.

- You still send pigeons to me. Why do you call? Get online. - I overheard somehow the other day a dialogue between lovers.

- I want to hear your voice, breathe in the tube. For me it's like hugging.

- So go out to Skype! Let's rest there, we'll look at each other. Telephone conversations are the last century! Look at yourself.. You are modern from head to foot, and you reason like an old woman with a cot in her hands, seized with a panic attack, because she does not know which button to press.

Another way to communicate - voice messages. I send my friend a photo from our family walk, and in return I get a voice file: "Oh, how wonderful you walked! Well done! ".

And all. Briefly, clearly, without parasitic words like "here", "well," "in general," "shorter". From the point of view of linguistics, voice messages are just a treasure! They do not see errors in words and missed commas. But to perceive them as a way of communication is just some nonsense.

Frequent calls can be a problem in the workflow. Here I want to express special gratitude to all messengers that only exist - for the ability to create chats and communicate quickly. In this case, correspondence is much more effective than any calls.

Do not get me wrong: the conversation is still important. I would not like to learn about an important event in the life of a close friend through SMS. But if you want to talk about your engagement, let's hold a videoconference for the sake of completeness.. We can do it in FaceTime, Hangouts, or Skype, if you like. Or in Line, or WeChat, if you are in Asia. Otherwise, send me a link to the map of the place where we meet, and I will happily treat you to coffee while we behave like full-fledged people.

According to a recent study of global telecommunications markets by Ericsson, a quarter of smartphone owners in Japan do not use voice calls.

This is due to the established culture of text communication in Asian countries: in Japan, e-mail is popular, and, for example, in South Korea - mobile messengers.

Although the West is somewhat "behind" in this respect from Asia - largely because of the expansion of subscriber plans with unlimited voice communication - there consumption is also shifting towards mobile Internet. This can be seen in the advertising of mobile operators: a few years ago they massively switched from promoting cheap calls to mobile Internet packages.