Voicemail, according to Wikipedia, “…mimics the functions of an answering machine.” An answering machine was an innovation in productivity – in 1983. Fast forward 25 years and now most telephones on the market come with an answering machine and telephone packages from Ma Bell include voicemail, and our cell phones also include voicemail. Why?
This month I called my telephone company and canceled my voicemail. WHY do I need voicemail? To put it simply – I don’t. I’ll accept that $60 a year back in my pocket, and, to be honest, I HATE voicemail. No, I take that back, I LOATHE voicemail. I don’t like leaving voicemail messages for others, and I certainly don’t like stopping work midstream to call into to an automated system, only to turn around have to call someone back. If the voicemail is for work, I usually have to take notes, and often have to look up the caller in the company directory because they garbled part of their name or their call back number - a step that could be avoided if they had simply emailed me instead. Send me an email and I will get back to you faster, and be happier to boot.
Shortly after canceling my home voicemail, David Griner featured PhoneTag for voicemail haters. I jumped for joy and was signed up within 10 minutes of reading his article, and now have PhoneTag handling my cell phone voicemail. PhoneTag is a service that will send me a transcribed message of the caller's voicemail, and apparently one of many that are available to choose from. If I decide I don't like PhoneTag, I will try a competitor, but know this, my voicemail days are over.
Recently I’ve come across a number of other articles mirroring my sentiment – most of which link back to a post by Michael Arrington of TechCrunch, who has stirred up quite a flurry of articles in response.
August 2008 seems as though it is the tipping point for me. I’m cutting the voicemail cord, and if you feel the same, feel free to link back to this site to demonstrate your anti-voicemail convictions. I have kicked off the campaign by creating a few web badges, and hey, feel free to make your own! I’d be happy to host more badges here and welcome your effort. You can contact me at AntiVoicemail at Gmail.com.
Spread the word. Let voicemail go. It’s time.
Voicemail, R.I.P. 1983-2008
