6 reasons we need to stop hating on voicemail and try to fall in love with it again
Since most of us have committed to mostly texting each other at this point, voicemails have become all but obsolete. The memes about voicemails are mainly all about how much they suck, how terrifying and invasive they are when our friends or people we’re dating leave them, or that they’re things only grandparents do. While we should still dedicate ourselves to teaching our elders the way of the GIF and simple texting, there are tons of very good reasons to fall in love with voicemail again.
Hold on a second — hear us out. Voicemail is not all bad.
For some digital natives, voicemails seem totally archaic since they always had the ability to text. But some older millennials might remember a time when voicemails were sort of a fun way to communicate. Really! We might’ve been too hasty to hate on them.
Here are some reasons to maybe not hate on your voicemail so much:
1. They’re so much easier to avoid if you don’t want to deal with them right away!
OK, for some people, seeing the little notification on the phone app can be anxiety-inducing, but in theory, you can let voicemails sit there. Whereas you might get a preview of a text or email or even just *see* it when you go to send and receive other texts, you don’t have to deal with voicemails until you’re ready. This is a great thing when it comes to parents and breakups.
2. It’s kind of fun to ramble to your friend.
We are all freaking pros at texting. It’s not like we can’t tap out a mini novel into the text box when we need to. But sometimes leaving a voicemail can be more efficient. And you can go on and on as long as you want. Voicemails are made for rambling, because it’s super awkward to talk into the ether, knowing that you can’t take anything back. But at least when you sound like an idiot in a voicemail, you don’t have to stare at the awkwardness like you do when you send a bad text.
3. There’s something nice about hearing a voice.
Come on, are we all so cold hearted as to not love hearing a voice now and again? Whether it’s your long-distance bestie or the love of your life, a voicemail is basically like having a conversation. When you hear a voice, you can also get a sense of someone’s mood. It takes the guesswork of nailing down whether someone’s annoyed or just bored, you know?
4. You can save them.
If you’re a total sap, you’ve definitely saved a voicemail in the past *just because* you want to be able to listen to it again. Is that totally cheesy and something out of a super dramatic teen drama? Totally. Are we judging your hopeless romantic side? Absolutely not.
5. You can make dad jokes in the greeting.
Voicemail greetings should not be stupid and cheesy just in case your future boss or soulmate calls you. But they can be fun to play around with and we should all get more creative with them. Like, on your birthday, instead of fielding calls from your grandma and long lost aunts who don’t know how to use Facebook, just change your greeting for the day and say thank you for the birthday messages right there. Or something. We are all totally wasting our voicemail greeting capabilities.
6. Because sometimes you need to call people.
We love texting as much as everyone else, but there are situations that require a phone conversation. When you leave a voicemail, you know things are Getting Real™. Sometimes getting voice-on-voice (or voice-on-machine) contact is a good thing.
Voicemails should not be abused. Like, leaving 10-minute voicemails of you doing karaoke to Kelly Clarkson is not cool. (OK, it’s a little cool. Like, you can do it to us.) But they aren’t all terrible. Just consider them another tool for keeping in touch with your people, and you honestly can never have enough of those.
