When I was thirteen, my big birthday present – the one I had wished and hoped for – was a telephone in my bedroom. Opening the beautiful, corded wonder, I felt I had won the lottery! And, true to form, I spent hours and hours and hours and hours and… gabbing with my friends. It was so fun! The design was a very large rectangular base with giant number keys. I thought it was so cool.
Somewhere along the way – I don’t know when or where – though phones themselves are much more ubiquitous these days, actually talking on the phone seems to have become passe. In fact, it seems that babies are born with them in their tiny hands. My own son, for example, never wanted for or wished that some birthday elf would deliver a phone to him. Instead, when he turned nine and started coming home from school on the bus to an empty house, I assuaged my fears about him not having an adult around to look after him by giving him a mobile phone with a number of his own.
It’s been years (well, decades) since I wanted to spend hours and hours and hours and… talking on the phone, and, not to sound like a cranky old woman, but when did we stop talking to one another? Understanding that mobile phones are still communications devices, when did we decide to decline using them as phones and opt for texting and social media-based correspondence as de rigueur?
Have you been trying to organize a date for coffee with a colleague or a friend, but your schedules just don’t seem to align when you try to plan by email? Have you been wondering how someone is doing since you haven’t seen them in such a long time? Are you longing for some human contact? My suggestion: Pick up the phone and give ‘em a call! You don’t have to talk for long, but hearing one another’s voices will be a welcomed reprieve from staring at a mobile device, laptop or tablet screen. Plus, your efficiency in actually connecting will increase. Win-Win.
Happy Networking!
Great info……and so true!!