Do people just not ring each other any more, is this normal?

[Gurolou]

All my friends want to text or WhatsApp, it seems to be a thing, I hate it. We are all in our forties and fifties so texting wasn't even a thing for most of our lives. Is this really the same for everyone and just how things are? Because I actually hate texts and WhatsApp it just feels like stuff piling on top of me, and I miss talking to people.

This. I see friends all the time. We make out plans on WhatsApp so we can read and reply at our convenience and the. We do our talking in person.

Yes or worse they leave voice notes which is awful

At work, especially in business, answering your phone is the main route to getting work. As in. I need an x? Can you help? DH will never say he can't: he will always ask for details, dimensions, and say, I will ask around and get back to you. He finds the answer in minutes and the time it takes him to respond is the time he wants to consider the price he thinks is right.

But DH never does anything unless there is a decent profit involved.

The only persons who ring me on our land line are my Aunts . My mum is no longer with us and she always phoned me landline or mobile. My dsis who lives abroad will use WhatsApp but we also speak to each other by phone. Texts are OK for quick messages but nothing beats a good chat by phone. Things can get misconstrued by text. There is room for both. I remember in the late seventies dating someone who lived a distance away and we could spend hours on the phone much to my parent consternation especially if my dad was s trying to ring my mum as he sometime worked away.

No one talking to each other anymore ?
what’s the world coming to ?
it seems most of you prefer computer messaging . well you won’t need to be bothered soon - you can be replaced by your personal Ai bot in a year or 2.- then you won’t need to personally interact with any one - not even your children …job done.

Only ever ring my parents.

I can’t stand speaking on the phone - please never call me 🤣

I talk to my daughter, my son and my husband (occasionally) but I never have a phone call with anyone else. I don’t like nattering.

Have to say OP it's a little strange that you are are nostalgic for one method of technological communication, that was in mass use for possibly only half a century of human history, if that. Growing up in the 60s and 70s the telephone in our house was not used for long chats with friends and family. Partly because it was expensive, partly because we had a party line, partly because not everyone had a phone, but also because the darn thing lived in an unheated hallway where it was attached with a cable. When I went to university in the early 80s my only phone calls were from a phone box and were mainly to ask my Mum to send money.

Also nervousness about making phone calls is not a new phenomenon. When I started work in the late 80s I was terrified to use the phone in a business setting, particularly to people I didn't know. But I got over it.

I think you are seeing all this through a very narrow lens. There are many problems and risks associated with modern digital communications, but that should not detract from the incredible power of digital messaging that makes it so easy to arrange a meet up, send a funny photo, co-ordinate a weekend plan, check in with a friend hundred of miles away who is struggling with life but may be too exhausted to talk on the phone. And many other uses

We are all in our forties and fifties so texting wasn't even a thing for most of our lives

What? 😂

I had my first mobile 27 years ago and texting was HUGE, even then.

Texting has absolutely been a thing for 'most' of all of your friends' lives!

Totally bizarre to write about something like texting as if it was invented ten years ago.

Completely agree. Messaging/WhatsApp is bloody awful. Really inefficient & open to misinterpretation in so many ways & just horrible. No wonder there is such an epidemic of anxiety and loneliness.

Yes OP I think is probably quite young?

Doesnt remember life years ago. Most families in my parents time and life didnt have a phone, you say 60s and 70s, we didnt have a phone until the late 70s. Years ago they would have to be at a certain phone box at a certain time to get a call, thats how it worked.

I actually don’t think I have ever had a phone conversation with any of my friends or colleagues . I’m 48. Messages and real life meetings only.

I'm 70, and none of this is news to me. But I think now, it is just more efficient to make a voice call and sort out the details.

Yip I never call. I used to speak to my mum nearly every night for about an hour 😆 we can chat so much. Since having kids I don’t have the time in the evening for this and now I hardly ever call. We mainly txt. The only others I call occasionally are my dad and sister but again we mainly txt.

Friends I only ever txt. I have one that likes to voice note but I lose my train of thought doing them and can’t remember what she’s asked so I prefer txt.

Im 40 and I HATE talking on the phone. I have to speak on the phone a lot for work but I refuse to do it in my own time. I never answer the phone unless its the school, DH/DC or my parents. Everyone else can send me a whatsapp/text/email & I'll reply when I get round to it. Im just too talked out at work to bother!

But we do communicate, by text and WhatsApp. AND we meet in real life too. I meet up with family and friends 3-4 times a month and so rarely need to speak on the phone. WhatsApp and texting has removed the need for actual phone calls (with friends and family) for many people.. I don't understand why some people (including the OP) are acting like people who don't want to make actual phone calls very often, don't ever speak to people.

I like human contact but in person. I have to be in the mood for phone calls. I can imagine this is really sad when you like talking on the phone. I think lots of us were glad to be released from that particular type of contact, that is all. I agree all the scrolling isn’t good.

I do value human contact, but in a different way. My group chats are a nice way to be part of my friends' lives as they happen, if you get me - I don't find out about thing a few days later on a phone call where we get it all out at once, I get a text or a picture as it happens, etc. I do get that the constant notifications can be a bit much, though!

We had phones & texting existed but texting didnt replace calling as the main form of communication till about 10-15 years ago.

I never speak to people out of choice except one of my children who calls several times a day! Anyone else it's only messages.

I'll happily watch someone phone, wait till they hang up and message a few minutes later to see what they want

We prefer them. Messaging is neither new nor shiny. The fact that it’s not your preferred mode of communication does not mean the rest of have had our heads fucked with by tech.

The increasing obsolescence of something you clearly enjoy must be sad for you, but that doesn’t mean that everyone else has somehow got it wrong.

Exactly.

I talk to people loads… face to face. Just not on the telephone.

Omg that's nasty.