Phone vs. Email

When I was a teenager I would talk on the phone all night. I remember using the time-lady and call-waiting to my advantage. My friends and I would plan our late-night calls ahead of time. We would both call the time-lady at the designated time and then one of us would hang up and call the other person at exactly the right time and the phone would never ring, waking up the parents, because the call would come in as call-waiting. Genius. Maybe.

The funny thing is that now that I'm a mom I can't stand talking on the phone. I just don't have the patience to carry on a conversation while wiping spit-up off my free shoulder, protecting my phone from toddler theft, and straining to hear (or talk) over the background noise of two kids. So often times I find myself emailing friends and family for quick questions that could be answered in a quick two-minute phone call.

Today I realized I might have a communication problem when I started to email my husband about this upcoming Friday. I mean he did just work seven fourteen hour shifts in a row but it's not like he's out of town or even reads email at work. He's probably going to read my email in the kitchen on the same Dell laptop I'm using right now. So why do I have to email him? Why can't I just ask him when he gets home? Well I'm a mom. By the time he gets home I'll forget to ask. And I don't like to call him at work especially because I know he'll want to talk about it when he gets home. Instead I emailed him as a reminder to discuss it later this evening. It felt silly nonetheless.

In the wonderful world of all things technological it's amazing how we are able to reconnect with long-lost classmates and coworkers on sites like Facebook and MySpace. Teenagers don't have to rely on the time-lady and call-waiting. They have vibrate mode, text and instant messaging, as well as email at thier fingertips. Somehow we are closer than ever to those far away, yet distant to those closest to us. I'm just wondering if and when email will completely replace phonecalls? I know for me, sadly, I'm almost there.