I don’t think I’m too unusual in my tendency to project. Whatever is happening to me is probably what is happening to other people. (See, I just did it right there.) When I see a news story with parallels to my own life, I am more likely to notice while I kind of ignore the stories that I don’t relate to, further skewing my bias.
Anyway, as part of our recent cross-town move, we dropped our telephone land line service, opting to rely on our cell phones instead. That’s why I noticed this story about Indiana State University’s plan to drop dorm telephone service since students have shifted to using cell phones.
The rise of the cell phone has been pretty dramatic. I considered myself a bit of a late adopter, not getting one until the year 2000 or so. Over the last decade, the things have become ubiquitous and are making themselves nearly indispensable as they morph from phones to Internet access points. In fact, they have probably contributed to me talking on the phone less.
I tend to dislike speaking on the phone if communicating otherwise is an option. The notion that both people have to be available for communication at the exact same time to exchange an idea is just so primitive; like the idea that the sun is a God, cans tied together with string, or fax machines. And, with the phone, there’s a need to pad that communication with small talk of one degree or another. (I suspect the person at the other end isn’t actually concerned with how I am; they probably just want me to perform a task or meet them at a certain time.) I’m sure we are losing something by trading telephone conversations for texts and e-mails, but whatever it is can’t be that deeply embedded, telephone conversations have only been around for a few generations in any case.
Another oddity of the cell phone revolution is that you’re no longer calling a place; you are calling a person. So, I suppose that land lines will remain viable for those scenarios where communicating with a place is more important than a particular person (e.g., calling a restaurant or other business). As long as I’m musing, I wonder how long it will take to abandon phone numbers. I already have trouble remembering the darn things since I don’t use the number pad very often – instead just picking “John Smith” out of a list. If we do move away from numbers, whatever we use will need a unique identifier – there are a lot of John Smiths out there – but the 10 digit phone number is a relic of old technology and isn’t strictly necessary.
If I had an editor, he or she could probably wring a paragraph of coherence out of this hot mess of a blog post, but I don’t, so this is what you’re getting on a Sunday morning.
“I’m sure we are losing something by trading telephone conversations for texts and e-mails, but whatever it is can’t be that deeply embedded, telephone conversations have only been around for a few generations in any case.”
Before that people wrote letters or talked in person, which included certain expressions of politeness and/or caring. The “small talk” that you seem to disparage in phone conversations may be what’s left of the glue that keeps people personally connected, or at least civil, and that we seem to be missing today. At least in phone conversations one can still tell a person’s mood or reaction to the way the conversation is going, and can adjust or affect it if need be. With emails sometimes I honestly cannot tell if someone is or has been offended/sarcastic/upset/overreacting/or nothing at all.
I’m not sure about the landline thing, but the “communication otherwise” options, while increasing in number and rapidity, actually reduce our connection and reaction to each other. IMHO.
I have recently installed a metered (pay per use over 30 calls) land line, after being land-line free for 5 years.
The reason? My girls (5 and 8) have learned in school to dial 911. However, my wife, who is at home with them, has only 1 cell phone, which may be locked, in her purse, in the car, or have a dead battery.
The land line with such basic service only costs $14/mo. Now, though, my girls know there is a phone in the house that they can use for emergencies, no matter what. I’ve heard enough stories about kids calling 911 to save their parents that I’d have a hard time forgiving myself if my wife died because I couldn’t spend $14/mo.
A side benefit is that we use Google Voice for our “home” number. It rings both our cell phones, and now this land line (incoming calls are unmetered). Works great for those times where my wife’s phone is unavailable for whatever reason and my girls can answer the phone.
Had this same conversation with my mother this weekend and she said that my 78 year old Grandmother is tired of a $45 monthly phone bill (They live in the country, so basic phone service is super pricey!) in her home and is thinking of just canceling it and using her cell phone for everything. My grandmother has had the same phone number for over 50 years so there is a lot of habit to overcome.
Landlines are dead.
Just keep in mind, there was virtually no cell phone service in NYC during 9/11. And in upcoming emergencies, the federal government can take control of certain cell phone frequencies for public safety use, disabeling more cell phones in the process. Just saying you might want to reconsider.
There is certainly some utility to having some telecommunications redundancy in the case of emergency. I’m sure an actuary could properly value that utility against the likelihood and impact of risk. I’m not sure that number would be $168 per year or over. (Certainly not the $540/year Jackson’s grandmother was paying.)
Agreed. While we did get the line for 911, we’re getting the daily value out of using it with Google Voice.
Plus, using GV allows us to give a “home” number to places that are better suited for it. For example, who’s cell phone does the gas company, electric company, school, etc call? If, for example, school calls, I want it going to my cell phone, my wife’s phone, and my home phone so someone can answer it.
I guess that is a 3rd case you left out above. Sometimes, we want to call a person. Sometimes, a place. And sometimes, we want a role (parent, helpdesk, etc).
Jackson,
Your grandmother can just port her home phone number to her cell phone and drop the cell number. That’s what I did. I had a home phone number with an easy to remember pattern. I didn’t want to lose it.