Pretty mundane and pointless, but for some reason my mother keeps pervading my mind when I think about how many people I speak to during the day without ever opening my mouth. Mom, hates email, "too impersonal". She would much rather pick up the phone. I on the other hand am much better with the written word than with my oratory.
So 12 people and counting that I have had conversations with this morning without opening my mouth to utter a single phrase…[aside from conversations I have with myself…:)]
How about you? Do you speak to more people during the day vocally or “impersonally” through other venues: email, chat, IM?
I don’t talk to too many people in the mornings. Hubby and maybe one of the kids. It’s mostly email (with the occasional phone call) from then until after lunch, when I switch offices.
So far all I’ve done is chat with some folks on a different board. There’s only like four people on line right now.
I’d say mine is an even split, on average. Different days are different of course.
I love email, IM, and text messages, because it gets the info across, and you don’t have to go through all the boring paces of spoken conversation, like the small talk and other very mundane details and tangents people tend to go off on when they talk (myself included).
My mom likes to call just to hear herself talk, because every time she calls, it rarely ever concerns anything at all. It’s just to jabber. So, of course, emailing is pointless and that’s why they hate it.
That said, I loathe phones calls, and would rather just meet in person for catching-up and shooting-the-shit, otherwise just converse over IM, email, and texting.
I have gone for weeks (maybe even months) at a time without uttering a word except for a few very perfunctory exchanges with service workers when I have to buy groceries.
Nowadays I talk to my girlfriend on the phone pretty much daily, even though I don’t really like talking on the phone. She’s happy even if it’s only for a few minutes, and because of the mutual comfort level we have it’s not so bad compared to talking to friends/family/business associates/whatever.
It’s been about 50/50 for me. It used to be more like 100/0, but I’m trying to be more social. I met two lovely ladies (mother and daughter) on the train this morning who are visiting from Kentucky.
There are some days that the LAST thing I do is want to talk to anyone. I telecommute with my office via email and IM with the exception of a monthly staff meeting.
My customers are usually verbal so it’s a good mix.
I misread this as meaning that you can count the number of people you have spoken today with your fingers, which means to my addled brain that you either use ASL or have road rage issues.