This is Stevea Robbins.

Welcome to the get it done guys quick and dirty tips to work less and do more.

Having sent out my first email at the age of 11, today's topic has been an issue for me for a long time.

It's the super important idea that different ways to communicate have very different implications.

My recent episode on talking to people when you have something to say to them, left open the question, how should you talk? Should you text, email, Snapchat, WhatsApp, I message, messenger,

MSN, AOL instant messenger, Facebook, tweet, Instagram, blog, or call? And the answer is,

yes. My young friend has phone anxiety.

Now, she says it's common and that it really shouldn't matter, since she can always text.

Millennial listeners might agree. And, well, might be wrong. Let's explore some history together

and then consider what it means for you. Everything used to be phones.

Before the early 2000s, everything was done by phone. Yes, everything. Even paper was sent by phone.

It was called a fax. There was no other option. You could call now, or you could write a letter

that took three days to arrive, and that was it. At work, you called.

Maybe you got an answering machine, but you ultimately ended up in a live conversation at some

point. At home, you called and called and called. Teenagers were glued to their phones,

calling and talking and talking and calling. Some used real glue. That didn't end well. If you didn't use a phone, you didn't have a

social life. You couldn't invite people out. You had to call, and even then, you had to think through

your plans in advance, since phones weren't portable, and you couldn't make last-minute changes.

And in that world, no, phone anxiety was not common. If you had it, you saw a therapist and you got over it,

otherwise you couldn't work and you couldn't play. Medium does matter. With a phone,

you can hear voice tone, and that tells you a lot. Communication is near instant, so pauses

and silence come across. Voice tone and pauses relay emotion, and that guides interpretation.

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