Editor’s Corner:
NO ONE TALKS ON THE PHONE ANYMORE

Have you noticed that as you use e-mail more, you talk on the phone less? Why? I thought people were lazy and preferred to use the phone rather than write. Isn’t that why correspondence as we knew it has tapered off between businesses and families as well?

E-mail has introduced an air of informality allowing people to keystroke their notes directly from their PC. No need for formal stationary, envelopes, stamps. Typos are even forgivable as the medium is perceived as spontaneous and more personal.

But besides that, it’s the centrality of e-mail. In one location, on your desktop, you can take care of numerous notes that need to go out. Many software packages allow you to include the sender’s message in the return message.

Voice mail, which is where most phone calls land up, forces the recipient to jot down messages and then place more phone calls that land in "voice mail jail."

During the last two months as I coordinated 12 speakers for our Internet Fax and Internet Telephony conference, I found that I could write one message to the entire list of speakers by e-mail and get answers within hours. If I tried calling the same people I wouldn’t hear from some of them for days. I’d also be on the phone for hours trying to break through the voice mail wall that most businesses have constructed to eliminate even answering the phone.

E-mail is the great time protector. Instead of calling people and getting into long conversations that stray from the critical topic at hand, e-mail gives managers more control of their time. I do hear of people complaining about 200 e-mails in their mail box they can’t answer. But imagine the dilemma of 200 voice mails, or 200 faxes. that are delivered in a non-interactive venue.

So when I wonder why my phone isn’t ringing I have to remind myself that the big deals are being made in my e-mail box. Even though it’s efficient, it is silent. I miss the comraderie on the phone, but boy are projects moving along!

I think the next big upheaval to our communications strategies will be the widespread use of video phones. Then we’ll have the image and voice of the caller at the other end of the line but we’ll become desk potatoes, no longer leaving the office for face-to-face meetings. Why should we? Everything we need ultimately shows up on our computer screen!