Get The Message

When I was younger we still had the answering machine with a cassette tape to record messages. I did not find it difficult to use, and I suppose no one else did either. At least, I should say, they managed to use it. What alternative was there? If you didn't leave a message, how was anyone to know that you had called? Later caller ID made a record of who called regardless of whether they had left a message, but you were depending on them to have a listed number. If they didn't, they made sure to leave a message.

The cassette machines were supplanted by ones with digital recording, and those were in turn replaced by voicemail. With each innovation, people have gotten less likely to leave an actual message. The result is that it works the way beepers used to. Somebody calls, you see that they called and you call them back, utterly ignorant of what they want. I'll tell you, I really don't care for that. I make a point of leaving a message.

I have to wonder whether I'm wasting my time. Is anyone listening to my messages? If they're not leaving any of their own, perhaps they place no importance on them one way or the other. Perhaps there is no really importance in them, or at least less than I have previously believed. I guess that it depends on whether or not the communication actually needs to be two-way. If not, than a voicemail is an adequate means of conveying information that requires no response. If so, then one might as well wait until a conversation can transpire.

On the other hand, that ignores the necessity of cajoling the other party into calling back. The bald statement of fact that someone has called me does nothing to make me call back immediately. An urgent matter will then just wait until I get into the mood to call back, and that can take a while. A voicemail that need not tell me anything related to the matter at hand must at least persuade me of the importance in calling. That then begs a question. If it's not important enough to leave a message telling me how important it is, then why are you calling? I don't like talking on the phone. Just keep it to yourself if that's the case.