{"id":14452,"date":"2009-04-06T07:52:38","date_gmt":"2009-04-06T13:52:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/?p=14452"},"modified":"2009-04-06T07:51:41","modified_gmt":"2009-04-06T13:51:41","slug":"leave-a-message-at-the-tone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2009\/04\/06\/leave-a-message-at-the-tone.html","title":{"rendered":"Leave a message at the tone?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Interesting article last week on voice mail<\/a> and how it is steadily falling out of favor — and use — by all those young whipper-snappers out there.<\/p>\n

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Research shows that people take longer to reply to voice messages than other types of communication. Data from uReach Technologies, which operates the voice messaging systems of Verizon Wireless and other cellphone carriers, shows that over 30 percent of voice messages linger unheard for three days or longer and that more than 20 percent of people with messages in their mailboxes \u201crarely even dial in\u201d to check them, said Saul Einbinder, senior vice president for marketing and business development for uReach, in an e-mail message.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

<\/div>\n

I’ll note that the problem here may be folks who are, um, uncomfortable with the technology, don’t know how to check their voice mail, or aren’t in the habit of doing so. That’s as much a generational problem in the other direction. <\/p>\n

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By contrast, 91 percent of people under 30 respond to text messages within an hour, and they are four times more likely to respond to texts than to voice messages within minutes, according to a 2008 study for Sprint conducted by the Opinion Research Corporation. Even adults 30 and older are twice as likely to respond within minutes to a text than to a voice message, the study found.<\/p>\n

There are no definitive studies of how many voice mail messages American leave compared with earlier periods, but if the technology is heading toward obsolescence \u2014 as many communication experts suspect \u2014 the trend is being driven by young people. Again and again, people under 25 recount returning calls from older colleagues and family members without bothering to listen to messages first. Thanks to cellphone technology, they can see who called and hit the Send button to reply without calling their voice mail box. \u201cDidn\u2019t you get my message?\u201d parents ask. \u201cNo,\u201d their children reply, \u201cbut I saw that you called.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

I’ve been known to do that, esp. when I think the message just says, “Hey, call me at ….” Which, in turn, discourages folks from leaving detailed messages and instead just leaving messages saying, “Hey, call me at ….” <\/p>\n

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Jack Cathey, 20, a college student in Lewisburg, Tenn., said his parents and grandparents continued trying to leave him voice messages despite his objections. \u201cDo you know your voice mail\u2019s full?\u201d a family member asked him recently, failing to comprehend that, for his generation, that might not be a problem.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

This is pretty interesting stuff, both in private life and professional. <\/p>\n

    \n
  1. \n
    People may expect that a message is being heard when it isn’t. It’s tough playing telephone tag when one person doesn’t feel the touch (which some might consider a benefit, not a drawback).<\/div>\n<\/li>\n
  2. \n
    Voice is much slower and serial to listen to than text is to read and reread. It is also transitory — unlike IM logs, voice messages vanish quickly.<\/div>\n<\/li>\n
  3. \n
    Voice is much easier to use (albeit with delays for long greetings in voice mail), especially for folks with mobility or dexterity problems (who may not easily text on cell phones or even use a keyboard).<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    The complication is uncertainty of how to best reach (or be reached) by different people. Some colleagues always call my cell. Others IM me first. Still others try email; if it’s urgent, it goes to the cell. At home, most people use the land line, many catch me on email or GChat, but a few text my cell directly first. (So far, nobody is relying on direct messages in Twitter. Yet.)<\/p>\n

    Then there are boundaries. I have my (company) mobile number in my office voice mail for people to call “if it’s urgent.” I could add my email address, or even an IM addy — but not only does that mean that folks are going to be listening to a greeting longer, I’m not sure that I want most of the folks who call me to also be emailing me.<\/p>\n

    \n

    Yet many see the shift away from voice mail as part of a generational divide, in which younger people are substituting text for talk, while older folks yammer on. Text messaging has increased more than tenfold over the last three years, according to CTIA \u2014 the Wireless Association, the trade group representing the industry. Young people have overwhelmingly been the most enthusiastic adopters. According to Nielsen Mobile, users 13 to 17 now send or receive an average of 1,742 text messages a month, versus 231 cellphone calls, and they spend nearly the same amount of time on their phones texting as talking.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

    And, as a techie, I’m in an odd netherworld, much preferring text to voice communication, but still used to using voice with a lot of people.<\/p>\n

    \n

    For Charlie Park, 30, a Web developer in Williamsburg, Va., a text message is more efficient and \u2014 equally important \u2014 more respectful of the recipient\u2019s time. \u201cYou never send an e-mail that says, \u2018Hey, e-mail me back!\u2019 You\u2019re always sending information,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

    Will this settle out in a few years? Or is this an area where we’re going to have ongoing disruptions in communication as technology and fads have people trying in too many different ways to communicate? Are services going to start bridging some of these things, where people will have a single way to reach you, and you can (dynamically) determine how best to be contacted?<\/p>\n

    Interesting times ahead.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Interesting article last week on voice mail and how it is steadily falling out of favor — and use — by all those young whipper-snappers out there. Research shows that people take longer to reply to voice messages than other types of communication. Data from uReach Technologies, which operates the voice messaging systems of Verizon … Continue reading “Leave a message at the tone?”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3,20,21,65],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14452","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blogging","category-hi-tech","category-job-jollies","category-my-mobile-pda"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":133605,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/06\/03\/voice-mail-spam-may-be-coming-soon-to-your-mobile-phone.html","url_meta":{"origin":14452,"position":0},"title":"Voice mail spam may be coming soon to your mobile phone","author":"***Dave","date":"Sat 3-Jun-17 2:08pm","format":false,"excerpt":"I've written about this earlier, but this article goes into more details. Companies have ways of adding messages directly to your voice mail without ringing through. They claim these don't count as \"calls\" (and thus be restricted by the Do Not Call list) because nothing ever rings, and there's no\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":133681,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/06\/15\/partisanship-and-personal-voice-mail.html","url_meta":{"origin":14452,"position":1},"title":"Partisanship and personal voice mail","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 15-Jun-17 7:12am","format":false,"excerpt":"Congressional Democrats are pushing the FCC to say that current do-not-call lists apply not just to phone calls that ring, but backdoor voice mails that just magically \"appear.\" That stands in contrast to the RNC, which has not only carved out the right of political organizations (cough, like itself) to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":11412,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2007\/09\/03\/its_not_being_scriptural.html","url_meta":{"origin":14452,"position":2},"title":"It’s not being “Scriptural” if you threaten not to be","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 3-Sep-07 11:31pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Y'know, when you're a politician and\u00a0respond to something you claim to consider to be a personal attack by attacking back, I recommend two things: 1.\u00a0 Don't leave voice mail messages...","rel":"","context":"In "Politics & Law"","block_context":{"text":"Politics & Law","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/politics-law"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":133398,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/05\/04\/wrong-number.html","url_meta":{"origin":14452,"position":3},"title":"Wrong Number","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 4-May-17 3:36pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Someone name \"Cody\" apparently fat-fingered the wrong mobile number (mine) into a Lending Tree application application. LT apparently lets you say, \"Hey, I was thinking to get a loan,\" and then lenders reach out to you. Some, apparently, reach out by phone. Or text. Quite a few apparently want to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":9772,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2006\/11\/06\/love_and_the_single_inbox.html","url_meta":{"origin":14452,"position":4},"title":"Love and the Single Inbox","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 6-Nov-06 8:26am","format":false,"excerpt":"So one of GMail's great strengths and\/or weaknesses is that it's not folder-based. I'm a big folder guy. As soon as I fire up a new e-mail account, I'm breaking...","rel":"","context":"In "My Computer"","block_context":{"text":"My Computer","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/my-computer"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5081,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2003\/11\/05\/phone_y_baloney.html","url_meta":{"origin":14452,"position":5},"title":"Phone-y Baloney","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 5-Nov-03 9:11pm","format":false,"excerpt":"I guess I am way too old-fashioned. 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