Shorter, Fewer Calls Shows Shift of Communications

According to Nielsen, the average number of mobile phone calls we make is dropping every year, after hitting a peak in 2007.

And our calls are getting shorter: In 2005 they averaged three minutes in length; now they’re almost half that.

We’re moving, in other words, toward a fascinating cultural transition: the death of the telephone call, says Wired magazine.

This shift is particularly stark among the young. Some college students I know go days without talking into their smartphones at all. I was recently hanging out with a twentysomething entrepreneur who fumbled around for 30 seconds trying to find the option that actually let him dial someone.

This generation doesn’t make phone calls, because everyone is in constant, lightweight contact in so many other ways: texting, chatting, and social-network messaging.

Clive Thompson on the Death of the Phone Call