Yesterday I came across a piece that made me smile. David Strom, an old friend who dates as a technology writer even further back that I do and has recently become an editor at ReadWriteWeb, said something that takes my occasional rants about the way texting has taken over our lives and goes a step further.
I’ll cop to text (or e-mail, for that matter) being useful in that they eliminate the need—and excuse—for the ineffective communication that “I called but couldn’t reach you” can add to to a back-and-forth. And David makes a good point about what it means when you “jump the line” by calling someone in a world where “I’ll get to you when I’m ready” has replaced real-time communications.
But maybe that’s a good thing.
To be sure, telephone communication being deprecated to the point of being a genuine interruption rather than the implied one it was before texting became pervasive means that salesmen looking to do things the old way are even less welcome than before. But if you’re able to call only people with whom you have enough of a relationship to have earned that right, maybe … you should.
Sometimes, business change can be about coming full circle.
