How do you feel when your phone rings? To be honest, it's quite rare I get any calls on my mobile nowadays, which is probably just as well, since I have a cheap Motorola and the shrill sounds of 'Hello Moto' would probably not be embraced with open arms by cinemagoers, which is where I can often be located if I'm not in a radio studio.
Anyhow, I ask because Nottingham College has launched a course that is designed to combat students' fears of making or receiving phone calls. I remember calling friend on their landlines, and even though it was decades ago, can still recall several of the York telephone numbers I used to dial to ask if mates wanted to 'play out'. I can also recall the number for Going Live, which is a bit more worrying. A cultural reference that will mean absolutely nothing if you're under the age of about 30.
Back to Nottingham, and the college is running coaching sessions on phone confidence and etiquette to support their students them in overcoming their fear, which is known as telephobia. Liz Baxter, who is the college's careers advisor, reckons young people "simply don't have the confidence" to use the telephone in a formal situation, which is clearly an issue when it comes to interviews for jobs, for example. It's often a lot quicker in many situations to just make a call than send millions of messages, but it so rarely happens!
A recent study carried out by USwitch of 2,000 people found that seven in ten of 18-34 year olds prefer a text to a phone call, with 23% of the same age group saying they literally never pick up calls. More than half of them assume a call out-of-the-blue automatically means bad news.
Tasks on the course include calling restaurants to ask what time they open, or shops to enquire whether a certain item is in stock. These bite-sized jobs help to build up confidence amongst students who find the thought of actually speaking to someone on the blower terror-inducing.
It would be easy to mock, but it's true to say we've never had more ways of communicating, so I can't blame young people for embracing WhatsApp, voicenotes and social media messaging as preferable ways to stay in touch with each other. Talking of voicenotes, I always listen to them at 1.5 speed, which is a good little life hack to save you some time. We all have that one friend who likes to leave lots of them. I'm guilty as charged.
George Heritage, who is client services manager at Express Recruitment, says that phone call anxiety is affecting business, so he welcomes courses like the one at Nottingham College. He commented: "Particularly post-Covid, there's been a definite trend. Both when we're recruiting for ourselves internally, along with recruitment for our clients as well."
I definitely think the pandemic had an effect on things, as with so much other stuff in life. A proper chat on the phone with my mum for half an hour is so much nicer than sending a WhatsApp, and the same applies to having a natter with a friend who I've not seen for a while. I even phoned up to order a takeaway last weekend, rather than using one of the many apps available for this purpose.
I feel so old thinking about the long queues at my halls of residence when none of us had mobiles in 1995, and queued up to call home for a chat. I even remember using phone boxes, and cramming the last few sentences in after the 'pips' went. Pass me a Werther's Original. Next thing, I'll be mentioning Dial-A-Disc and the speaking clock (definitely more cultural references lost on the young).
Pick up the phone. Make that call. The final word goes to Evie, 17, who told the BBC: "The only people I'll call are my mum and dad. But anyone else, I don't want them to call me because it feel quite formal, and that's not something I'm used to. It's unknown to our generation, we've grown up texting each other". Texts seem to have largely vanished these days in favour of WhatsApp, but let's bring back the phone call!
Whilst we're at it, how about reviving the lost art of letter writing too? Put pen to paper, and shock a friend when a nice note arrives in the post that isn't a demand for dosh or yet another takeaway menu.
