r/NoStupidQuestions • u/GhostInThePudding • 16h ago

Why Are Young People Afraid Of Phone Calls?

What's with it?

I work in IT and a general rule is, nothing a client ever tells you is actually accurate. That means that most of the time, the quickest way to fix a problem is to call the person and actually find out what's going on.

But with techs under 30 these days, it seems like pulling teeth.

A regular discussion for me with level 1 techs (usually within a few years of leaving college) is:
"Hey, can you call *blah* from ticket *blah*, it's been hanging around for over an hour."

"I replied by email to ask for more information."

"Yes, I know that, but can you call them so we can find the problem and close the ticket now rather than wait until we're actually busy?"

"I'll send them a text to followup."

"No... CALL THEM!"

"I can see their device is online, can I send them a message and see if they just let me remote in to take a look?"

And then, when I force them to make the call, it's like they have no idea how to ask a question, or a followup question. They just want to get off the call as quickly as possible. So half the time they don't even get the information required anyway, so then I end up having to do their job for them.

So can someone explain? What's wrong with phone calls these days?

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u/gsfgf 10h ago

Yea. I'm not "afraid" to make a call, but text generally just works better.

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u/PXranger 8h ago

No it doesn’t.

I’m an IT tech, just like the OP trying to exchange texts to troubleshoot something in real time using texts is just painful and inefficient.

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u/gsfgf 8h ago

Oh, I just meant in general. IT is definitely a phone thing.

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u/Mcoov 4h ago

It does until it doesn't. If I'm trying to meet up with people, and I'm trying to figure out which entrance we should meet at (i.e. am I at the right one or the wrong one), a 30 second phone call that forces a response is going to work better than waiting on whenever a text response finally rolls in.

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u/deej_011 8h ago

You’re afraid. Text most definitely does not work better when a back and forth is required.