Voice mail has become like a landline for me -- it is reliable and dependable, but it is also logistically cumbersome. Just yesterday my sister left a voice mail on my cell phone. In contrast to most people today, I am not tethered to my phone. Unlike the unobtrusiveness of a man clipping it to his belt, I was wearing a dress and would have had to carry it around. I did not. So I did not receive her important message until evening and it may result in six hours of driving for me to do what she could have done if I had received her request.
Had she emailed instead, I would have seen it at multiple points during the day on my computer or iPad. Had she called my voice mail at work, I would have received an email message on my computer or iPad. (Ironically, I would still have to go through all the prompts to delete it from my physical phone so it loses points there!)
For many, email is as slow and bulky as voice mail is for me. They would much prefer the instantaneous, mobile accessibility of texts. There are others who have no email access during the day, so a phone message is much preferred. Many medical records and documents are still delivered by fax, and that method works well for the involved parties.
It used to be miraculous to be able to communicate across distances at all, and now we are all wanting our messages to be faster and delivered to us through the vehicle of choice. When you craft your message for delivery, even when it is only to another individual, consider whether your words should be recorded, texted, emailed or faxed. As the venerable media analyst Marshall McLuhan said in the 1960s: "The medium is the message." It applies today as well.
-- beth triplett
leadershipdots.blogspot.com
@leadershipdots
leadershipdots@gmail.com
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