Something to ponder: on my phone are 36 unlistened-to voicemail messages. There have been 36 for a couple of weeks now because the 36 have filled the voicemail box somewhere on the AT&T’s voicemail servers. Of course, the phone’s Visual Voicemail could let me select any of the messages and listen to each of them individually - but I dread the idea of doing so: I don’t really want to listen to any of them and I don’t think I’m alone.
You see, I wonder if the visual interface of the Apple iPhone will make voicemail redundant - at a glance I can see who the last folks who have called are and I can see who has left a message. And unless I don’t know what the number is, I can guess what they were calling about and what the message says. In a world where we seem to find bite-size messages in SMS or Twitter form acceptable, why would I spend considerable time listening to an audio message?
If you don’t have visual mail then I pity you - you have to take time out to listen to your voicemail messages one by one. Every one a surprise. Not exactly a modern way to access information. Voicemail feels like it was a technology that was created to fill a gap - until something better came along. And now it has: Sure, ring me but there’s no need to leave a message - I’ll know you called and if you want to tell me something then the emerging modern etiquette evolving is you should just text or email me - not leave a voice message.
Either that or I’m just an anti-social miserable sod.
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total tangent, but what about audio email?
I don’t want to type my email with a touchscreen or a miniture qwerty kepad!!!
I want to give dictation. who cares if there are voice recognition typos - my email messages are already full of them.
Can someone figure that out for me?
May 6th, 2008 at 2:39 pm
seems an odd rant when you can simply check out “calls received” and know who it was? am i missing something here?
May 6th, 2008 at 3:39 pm
excellent.. and is anything more annoying than the vocal operator guiding you through the voicemail menus?
May 6th, 2008 at 4:29 pm
You’re anti-social? Hell, I don’t have a cell phone because I hate to be interrupted when I’m working. If I want to hear from someone, I call them. I don’t need phones ringing when I’m trying to think or get work done. Email, I can deal with because I can read it when I have a break but cell phones are a plague of the 21st century. Talk about noise pollution. They’ve invaded every public space. A pox on them!
Bit off track from your voicemail comments but once you start on a rant, it’s hard to stop.
May 10th, 2008 at 4:48 am