Telephone Use "Just to Talk": Not Common Anymore?

I'm about to graduate from college (My graduation's in the middle of May). When I was younger, I would call up friends on the phone just to talk all the time. Now, I rarely do that. I would like to do that more, but I do that with friends so seldom that to call one of them just to chat often seems odd to me. I wonder how common this sort of experience is. I think the more common use of the Internet and social networking like Facebook nowadays could definitely be a factor. I can think of one specific friend of mine who told me he prefers talking in I Ms to talking on the phone. I like instant messaging, but sometimes hearing the other person's voice is nice.

I can see reasons to not call my college friends up, since I go to a small college and I get to see them all pretty often, but I end up not keeping in touch with them much over breaks so I'm afraid I'll lose touch with them once I graduate from college.

How many of you call friends just to talk/ask them how they are/etc.? Has the frequency of this changed? If so, why do you think that is?

It's a waste of money in the times of facebook.

I hate phones. I prefer conversing with people using my computer.

You do realise that you can initiate voice chat on most IM clients, yes?

"It's a waste of money in the times of retardedly overpriced phones with retardedly overpriced bills and people foolish enough to buy them."

Fixed that for you.

Yes, I know about various forms of computer voice chat. I know you can do voice chat with I Ms, and I have Skype. I don't often use any form of that with friends, though.

I still do sometimes. My parents because they don't have a laptop that I can talk to them on and like phones better anyway.

My best friend... isn't at her best on the phone, so I tend to only ring her to arrange meet-ups. Another friend I always ring because he's never on MSN, you slack bastard.

Gone are the days of the annoying teenage girl constantly using her phone to chat with her friends.

Now we have the annoying teenage girl constantly using her phone to text with her friends.

At least the former didn't DRIVE at the same time...

I don't text. I'm kind of anti-texting. My friends often tell me I should get texting (I don't have a texting plan.) but I don't really want to.

I only text when I need to (IE once every other week)

I still prefer AIM.

And I refuse to use Facebook.

I hate texting. I like I Ms though. Only with certain people. I really love voice chat and phone conversations with people I like.

Umm... I'm guessing the opinions in here might be a bit biased, seeing as it's a webforum for people interested in media stuff. I'd also factor in age and gender. I can imagine that women favour voice media over text because they are told that they are the more social and emotional gender, and voice gives you way more emotional information.

Also, one important difference is that texts don't force me to react instantly. But don't generalize that - I know people who are completely unable to not look at their screen and react when an IM pops up. I, on the other hand, do this only if I expect something important.

We don't have a home phone, just our cell phones. And texting is awesome.

It lets me send grocery lists to Drunkscriblerian so he can pick up dinner supplies on the way home, for one.

Talking on the phone "just to talk"? What is this, the '80s? Who does that anymore?

Honestly, I refuse to text as much as I can. Sometimes I have to, but only if a friend texts me first. In general, I don't text and refuse to.

KCK: My sister doesn't write emails or text messages, and while she owns a mobile phone, it's turned off almost all the time. My parents are fine with email, but they rarely ever text me.

I don't mind texting, but it's a huge pain in the ass when people text me and I'm in the car (where responding would be kind of dangerous). If it's urgent enough, I plug my phone into the AUX jack and just call, since that's safer.

@vjeno That was a rhetorical question, pardon me.

I almost exclusively text. I will however, call, if there's something that I really need to discuss and it's a long-winded conversation sort of thing, or if I have absolutely nothing else to do.

I like to multitask, the last several girls I dated hated that, they wanted me on the phone so they had proof I was giving them my full and undivided attention when we communicated, and not actually just playing COD and texting every time I died.

"I don't mind texting, but it's a huge pain in the ass when people text me and I'm in the car (where responding would be kind of dangerous). "

Ignore 'em. SMS, like email, isn't for senging time-critical messages. If someone sends a text, it can wait until I'm free. I'm not pulling over on the road just to answer a text.

I've never phoned someone "just to talk". I'd prefer to do it face to face. My sister and my mother do, though, all the time.

"You do realise that you can initiate voice chat on most IM clients, yes? "

Only if you bring your laptop to the pub, or on the bus. Seems a mite inconvenient. dialling a number's quicker, too.

Voice Chat is nice, but doesn't work well in really rural areas like where I live. The only available wireless around here can only be accessed if you're living in the middle of town or near the local community college, and the broadband in the out-of-the-way areas can't properly stream things.

Generally speaking, if I'm texting back and forth with someone, after about two exchanges, I'll just call them. Textins can be pretty handy for things like "Hey, wanna get something to eat at 1:30?", especially if you're trying to ask five or six people, or talking to someone who's say, in class.

At home, we almost always use our regular phone to call people. And believe me, my mom does plenty of communication through talking.

At school, I receive calls from home on my room phone to not use up cell phone battery unnecessarily. I text regularly with my parents, far more than with anyone else. I never texted before college, we adopted it as a way to stay in touch quickly and easily specifically while I was in college.

If keeping up with friends who are elsewhere, I prefer to use my various instant messaging services. iChat for most, Skype for a few others (one of whom I regularly video chat with, the other not so much) and Windows Messenger for another one or two. I've never really been good with phones, it's like everything that's awkward about face-to-face conversations but worse.

I rarely use Facebook for communication other than planning events and gatherings and stuff. I find facebook chat to be an annoying imitation of actual good IM services and am usually logged off of it. Facebook is, in all honestly, a way for me to keep track of other people's lives (commonly referred to as "stalking", I think that's a stupid narrow term...) and vent out thoughts through statuses and links and stuff.

Old-fashioned phone calls definitely are sort of on the way out though. There are just so many more convenient or easy or versatile alternatives now. Is this bad for our social skills and whatnot? Maybe. I don't really mind. It'll just be one more thing to tell my kids about someday...

ALSO, I don't believe I properly know how to text multiple people at once. I feel kind of stupid about that.

edited 21st Mar '11 10:56:14 AM by frog753

Isn't it extremely funny when they talk for half an hour and then go, "hey you know what, I'll just come over to your place."

WOMEN!

I hate predictive text. I also hate signing my texts "Tarnim".

I love multitasking when I am talking to someone which is part of why I like voice chat...I can just put my headset on and do whatever. I also get the joy of hearing the other person's voice which pleases me greatly.

As for chatting while I am out and about...no. Unless the person is with me on my adventures my adventures are not filled with talking.

edited 21st Mar '11 1:10:04 PM by Aondeug