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Just send an e-mail. It's easier than voice mail. istockphoto.com

 

by Sara Sarasohn

I am totally over voice mail.

In the last six months I've left fewer and fewer voice mails. It just seems to take too long to listen to the outgoing message, wait for the tone, recite my phone number twice. If I call and the person doesn't answer I just hang up. Then I write them an e-mail or IM.

People have been leaving fewer voice mails for me as well. When they do, I procrastinate about picking them up. It seems like too much trouble to call in, wind my way through the prompts, put in my passcode. I'd rather get an e-mail or an IM. It's so much faster to skim a few lines of text.

I have gone so far as to change the outgoing message on my voice mail. It no longer asks the caller to leave a message at the tone. It just says that I'm not there. I don't want the voice mail, so I'm not going to invite it.

This change in the last few months has nothing to do with a technological innovation. When I first came to work at NPR in 1991 we had email and IM. They have been available to me as tools for 17 years. It's only recently that I have decided that they should replace voice mail.

This is particularly striking to me because I work in radio. I love voices. Beyond that, it is professionally important to me to be able to judge how expressive someone is with their voice. I want reporters to pitch stories to me over the phone, not in email. I just don't want the bother of listening to it on my voice mail.

categories: Commentary

3:39 - June 25, 2009

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