The 'mute generation'. Young people who no longer speak on the phone because "they are going to have me for half an hour telling me sorrows"

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They're going to have me on the phone for half an hour, telling me sorrows.

Or they're going to ask me to go somewhere, or worse, to do them a favor.

They may even call me to tell me off.

And surely everyone will hear it." This is the pretty picture that, according to the study 'Generation Mute' Millennials Phone Call Statistics [

], published by the organization Bank my Cell , young Americans born between 1981 and 1996 paint themselves every time the phone rings.

And don't get your hopes up: the fact that it appears on the screen that the caller is the mother, a dear cousin or a brother, does not improve things.

Rather it makes it worse.

According to the same study, 50% of these young people, already baptized with the aforementioned 'Mute Generation', recognize that these are precisely the calls they avoid the most.

Is this study extrapolated to the Spanish population?

Are young Spanish people just as mute as North Americans?

Miren Altuna is the mother of two teenagers, ages 17 and 14.

"My children talk on the phone, or rather on a video call, but not with me. Not with anyone else in the family.

."

Digital Society in Spain 2018, by Telefónica, one of the most exhaustive studies on communication habits carried out to date in our country, put figures on this silent phenomenon.

More specifically, it indicated that 96.8% of young people between the ages of

with family and friends and were little fond of voice calls.

And he also included that taste for video calls to which 39% of boys and girls between 14 and 19 are especially adept -depending on the face that appears on the screen-.

"Yes, that's true," Miren continues.

"They talk to friends by video call from their room and at certain times, like when they play the game. But if I call him on the phone, if he answers me, I have to prepare for a

or what do you want?".

Call is it invasive?

Sean Mackaoui

According to Ferran Lalueza Bosch, professor and researcher in Communication and Social Media at the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC), "millennials have lost the habit of talking on the phone live. Making or receiving a traditional phone call makes them uncomfortable and can lead to They

find it

for two reasons: On the one hand, they perceive it as a more risky communication strategy since the words spoken cannot be deleted, unlike what happens, for example, with WhatsApp voice notes; this option allows them to repeat the recording as many times as necessary before sending it. And, on the other hand, the call of a lifetime seems intrusive to them since it can be made or received at a completely inappropriate moment".

And inappropriate is, it seems, any time.

81% of those surveyed -1,200- by Bank my Cell acknowledge that calling by phone

, since, supporting Lalueza's analysis, it prevents them from preparing the message as they would like -an ode to

.

This is, the experts point out, a consequence of the so-called asynchronous communication fostered by the screens with which they have grown up: the one in which the message and response take place at different times, which is produced on a delayed basis.

As a result, synchronous, live communication makes them feel vulnerable since they do not control in the same way the impression they are going to give or what they are going to say.

In short, they cannot erase the message and polish it as a slogan.

Like Photoshop to our image, asynchrony filters our emotions.

Calls cannot be deleted

"I like to talk on the phone with friends or very close people. But I don't like having people call me that I don't know very well or I don't know directly. In general,

because it's faster and more direct," explains Álvaro, a high school student from 17 years.

"If they call me from a phone I don't know, of course, I don't answer."

Researcher Cristóbal Fernández Muñoz, Vice Dean of Communication and Institutional Relations at the Complutense University of Madrid, has verified this: "Having to answer a call at the moment it occurs generates some anxiety, even

," he explains.

"Asynchronous communication leaves less room for improvisation and can be better prepared."

But Fernández Muñoz also considers that this is a

.

"Mobile chat, instant messaging, and it's really only been called for the most important thing for a decade. Calls are actually quite disruptive, they don't necessarily come at the right time."

And note that, in addition to this, according to the report 'Generation Mute', young people consider that calling is presumptuous, because it is assumed that their own needs are so important as to interrupt the other.

Which is

, since messaging or email allow you to choose when to read the messages and generally go straight to the point, without having to speak ahead of time.

And, finally, you never know how long the telephone 'plate' will last.

"With messages I communicate more quickly and directly," says Álvaro.

"And I can do it while I study or watch TV. A phone call demands your

and takes time...which you don't have anyway."

If you call me, people hear me

"Mom, people are listening to me,

," explains Mireia G., who snaps at her 15-year-old daughter on those fortunate occasions when she answers her cell phone.

"She likes to talk little and fast, and nothing about how you are or things like that. She Straight to the point."

For Carmen García Galera, director of the Unit for Scientific Culture and Innovation at the Rey Juan Carlos University, the need for privacy is precisely one of the aspects that helps to understand why adolescents and young people are inclined towards asynchronous communication.

And invites not to demonize technologies.

"Let's not forget, there has never been a generation that communicates as much as today's teens," she reminds us.

"

is a time of insecurity, and technology gives them security. I think maybe it's easier for them to express things in writing than verbally."

However, he also believes that "the loss of ease in verbal communication is detrimental to these generations, and should be reinforced in schools and universities."

In the US, he adds, "

, and the results can be seen in the ease with which teachers or journalists express themselves later, for example. That is something that is being lost."

On the other hand, it points out that these asynchronous communication habits increasingly established among young people may respond to the constant judgment to which young people are subjected in social networks, which leads them to want to control all expressions of themselves.

"This is what we have to work with young people, reinforce them so that they do not feel subjected to that judgment or affect their self-perception too much. In this sense, parents and teachers have to do literacy work."

Less spontaneity, less warmth, less authenticity

Lalueza believes that with messaging "we not only lose spontaneity, but also warmth and authenticity. Asynchrony is colder and more staged, like a photo with an

. The real almost never matches perfection, but it allows us to maintain our essence and interact with others in a much more dynamic, sincere, enriching and rewarding way".

generation point of view

?

Has what we consider rewarding changed?

Lalueza himself acknowledges that "those of us who are older are reluctant to completely abandon live voice communication, even though asynchrony is also gaining ground. This is, in part, due to the inertia of a relatively recent era in which there were no other alternatives and partly out of the conviction that the warmth and authenticity of a live conversation more than outweighs any risk or discomfort that may be associated with it."

However, it is worth considering whether it is not just generations X and Y, but society in general, that are remaining silent: according to eMarketer,

age of 64 use WhatsApp.

Spain is, in fact, the European country where WhatsApp -and Instagram- is used the most, according to BEREC [Body of European Regulators for Electronic Communications].

"The millennials, and even more so generation Z (from 7 to 22 years old), have fully accepted it, but it is something that gradually floods more adult profiles. And the advantages are many. I am generation X and I understand benefits perfectly. A call can be more annoying than practical", concludes Fernández Muñoz.

Surely the fear of going off the hook for having to

was always there.

Only before, if you didn't pick up the receiver, you always had the question of whether you had touched something.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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