The phone didn't just change the way we communicate. It also changed our attitude toward other people's time.
In the past, you'd call someone, and if they didn't answer, it was understood that they couldn't at the moment. Today, for some people, not getting an answer is almost perceived as a provocation. One call becomes five. Five becomes twenty. There are those who are willing to call forty or fifty times, as if the number of missed calls will change the reason you didn't answer the first one.
There are jobs where urgency is real. There are people who have to be available because of the nature of what they do. But most of what we declare urgent has nothing to do with urgency.
It has to do with someone wanting something now.
This is where, it seems to me, the phone has made a bigger change than we realize. The ability to reach someone at any moment has slowly been turned into an expectation that the person must answer you at any moment.
And then time disappeared.
It no longer matters if it's early morning, late at night, Sunday, a holiday, or someone's vacation. If something comes to mind, there's a number you can call. The line between the ability to contact someone and the right to demand their time has become very thin.
Maybe that's why a missed call today says more about our communication culture than ten answered ones.
You called. They didn't answer.
A message is enough.
Everything after that often says less about the importance of what you're calling about, and more about how little space you're leaving the other person to not be available when you've decided you need them.
Reshid Dervishi