I wanted to note, because I realized recently that I haven’t said this explicitly, that I’ve gotten very phone-avoidant over the last decade. It’s a little weird to me, since I was the teen who literally spent all day on the phone with her best friend, talking about nothing. But at this point, I find myself resisting using the phone much at all. Calling people is hard, picking up phone calls is even harder. I sort of wish I didn’t have a phone at all. I sometimes go weeks, or even a month, without looking at my voicemail. I also mostly don’t text.
I have all kinds of theories about why this is, mostly having to do with my life being much busier, with an immense number of people in it who want / need to engage with me, and feeling like I need to manage that flow in order not to get overwhelmed.
E-mails feel more manageable, because I can set aside time to deal with them. Phone and texting have an immediacy to them that is stressful. FB messages are interesting, because they’re sort of immediate; I like them because I can usually respond v. quickly to them, but if I don’t have time to look at them for a day or two, the sender knows I haven’t seen their message yet, so it doesn’t feel as pressing as a phone.
Anyway, obviously this is all very individual, but for those who *might* call me, I thought I should say at least once that it’s not a good way to reach me these days.