We browse social networks, we listen to music, we take photos, we send emails and text messages with our phone, but we hardly call our friends, our family, or even our professional relations. How did we get there ?
“A phone call became intrusive. No one answers their phone anymore,” says Nina Duque, lecturer and doctoral student at the faculty of communication at UQAM. It remains useful in very specific moments. “If a friend is going through a hard time, they’re going to call you, because a text isn’t enough. Your voice will be a comfort, because it is not replaceable when we need support. »
She draws a parallel between the post office and the telephone. “In the past, we were happy to receive postcards; now we only receive advertising, our taxes and our taxes by post. The telephone is the same. It’s either a survey, a scam or bad news. »
We need to rethink the notion of a telephone call, believes Emmanuelle Parent, co-founder and director of the Center for Online Emotional Intelligence (CIEL). “When we receive a call, we tell ourselves that it’s serious, we worry, because why call if you can text? When we call unexpectedly, we assume that we are intruding and that we are interrupting a person in their activities. Is this an emergency? We need an immediate response, hence the call and the stress caused. We realize that the new norm is to text before calling to set up an appointment. »
PHOTO MARCO CAMPANOZZI, LA PRESSE ARCHIVES
Emmanuelle Parent, co-founder and executive director of the Center for Emotional Intelligence Online
That said, the many texts and emails can be misinterpreted. “We would benefit from using the telephone more to avoid misunderstandings,” emphasizes Emmanuelle Parent.
A phone call is also a cognitive overload, according to the woman who is also the author of the youth essay Text, publish, scroll. “Busy adults have to manage and respond quickly to numerous requests on a daily basis. When, on the same device, we receive messages from work, children, friends, family and we have to respond to them quickly, a call adds to the pressure we have to deal with. »
Communications in transformation
Technologies have evolved over the last 15 years and transformed the way we communicate. Gone are the days when we pulled the extension cord on the telephone to lock ourselves in our room to talk for hours with our friends. Today, according to the NETendances 2023 survey, in Quebec, 86% of adults have a smartphone (97% of 18-24 year olds, 91% of 25-34 year olds, 94% of 35-44 year olds), but we almost no longer uses it to call.
“We don’t have scientific data on the volume of calls, but we realize that we talk less and less on the phone. At work, applications like Teams And Zoom have replaced the telephone,” says Claire Bourget, director of business intelligence and marketing at the Academy of Digital Transformation (ATN) at Laval University.
Bell, Rogers and Videotron, for strategic reasons, do not communicate on their customers’ call volumes, but Videotron is seeing an evolution in user behavior. “Today, we notice that customers are increasingly using their data by communicating, for example, by voice or video with their loved ones and colleagues through third-party applications (e.g.: FaceTime, WhatsApp, Teams, Zoometc.),” says the company’s public affairs team.
Nina Duque, however, notes in her research on adolescents a return to voice and speech for communications, particularly with vocal messages. “Teenagers use texting a lot, but in recent years, FaceTime (audio and video) is very popular, as are voice messages. And let it be WhatsApp, Messenger, Instagram, Snapchat, Slack, all these applications offer the function of being able to communicate by audio or video call. There is still a need to talk to each other,” she believes.
The power of voice
Elisabeth Roy, president of Roy and Turner, a press relations company in operation since 1995, has seen the ways of communicating evolve in her profession. From faxes to numerous phone calls, she moved on to emails and text messages.
I often say to the younger people I work with: “I’m not better than you, it’s just that, in some cases, I pick up my phone to talk to people and it gets results!” It’s a relationship business. You can’t build professional human relationships solely through texts and emails.
Elisabeth Roy, president of Roy and Turner
“On the phone, there is added value, it’s nice to receive a call,” she adds. There is something more, a voice, a human warmth. Recently, I called a friend who had lost her job and I felt that she appreciated my call, because we don’t take the time to do that anymore. There is an emotional involvement in the call, it’s very different. »
The telephone is intimate. “It’s our voice, we are confronted with the person who speaks,” analyzes Nina Duque. There are silences, emotion, we no longer have control. It’s something we’re no longer used to. Technological transformations are constant and very often, we take two steps forward, we go back, then a step to the side. »
PHOTO PATRICK LEMAY, PROVIDED BY NINA DUQUE
Nina Duque, lecturer and doctoral student at the Faculty of Communication at UQAM
Perhaps the telephone fits less today with the way we live. “Or should it be rehabilitated? asks Nina Duque. Because we lose a certain humanity and even a sense of responsibility. By not answering the phone, we don’t want to face reality. We no longer face bad news or other people. There is a certain laziness too. Why not answer his phone? There are no more spaces or times associated with communication, so as humans, we reconfigure our barriers. »
What are the impacts on human relationships? “People who have good well-being indicators are individuals who see people in person a lot,” says Emmanuelle Parent. Communicating digitally is good, but it’s more important to see each other in person, because it feels good. This creates a social bond. Talking on the phone is an in-between. Its importance should not be underestimated. There is spontaneity, emotion, it’s warm, comforting, let’s not forget that! »
Brian Mulroney’s calls
During the tributes paid to Brian Mulroney, many personalities remembered the former prime minister’s calls and their telephone conversations with him, including his son Mark Mulroney, Wayne Gretzky, Justin Trudeau and Mélanie Joly. “I remember when I had problems with the Netflix affair, he was the only one who called me, who encouraged me and gave his support,” recalled Mélanie Joly, Minister of Foreign Affairs , upon his arrival at the Notre-Dame basilica, at the microphone of ICI Radio-Canada Télé. “While we were renegotiating NAFTA, in very uncertain times, in the middle of a particularly stormy week, he encouraged me to stay the course. I can still hear him say to me on the phone: ‘Justin, remember what your father said, that it’s at the end of the evening that we recognize the best dancers'”, declared the Prime Minister in his speech during Brian Mulroney’s state funeral. “I interrupted him during G7 meetings, but he would pick up the phone, because for him, it was family above all,” Mark Mulroney told All one morning on ICI Première.
Read “For or against telephone conversations? »