means of communication

[juliet]

I am not enormously keen on phones as a means of communication - if I can't have face-to-face contact, then I *way* prefer email. However, I know plenty of people who are the other way around, and seem to recall reading, over the years, much muttering about the impersonal nature of email, etc. So I was wondering to myself why I think this (it's amazing what your brain will wander onto whilst spending half an hour envelope-stuffing).

I think the thing is that phones have the major problem of face-to-face contact - lack of time in which to formulate the next response - without the major benefit of being able to see the other person's face, body language, etc. I know in theory at least you get tone of voice, but a lot of the time that doesn't come across enormously clearly (especially not if using a mobile. I hate mobiles much worse than landlines, although they do have their uses - just not for proper conversations, as opposed to arranging-things conversations)

With email, you have all that time to put what you're trying to say clearly. And in some ways, the lack of body language etc is an advantage - it forces you to use clearer language, rather than relying on shrugs & handwaving. I mean, this is obviously far from perfect, & people misunderstand - but it's not like that doesn't happen in non-text-based communication. And anyway, I don't *read* emails from my friends as impersonal. Most people I know write in much the same way that they speak, so you can relate it to how they say things in person anyway.

Hmm. I think there was more than that, when I was envelope-stuffing and contemplating, but it appears to have gone now. *Hate* nasty phones.