People are (rightly or wrongly) less concerned about putting their best foot forward with text.
As an ergonomic matter, typing all day long, although fatiguing, consumes less energy than talking all day long.
Text can be created in fits and bursts. An audio or video needs to be recorded more or less in a continuous sitting.
Note that many people seem to prefer e.g. Skype calls over text chats because (to these people) voice chat requires less energy than writing, and feels like just having a normal conversation and thus effortless, whereas writing is something that requires actually thinking about what you say and thus feels much more laborious.
A lot of people also seem to find audio easier to consume than text: podcasts would be a lot less popular otherwise. (I never understood podcasts at first. Why not just write? Finally I realized that non-nerds actually find listening easier than reading.)
You can’t play background music while having a video conversation
Headphones and a good call quality together fix this, I think? Haven’t tried, though.
Audio is easier to consume when full attention isn’t available. It’s not easy to read a book while driving, jogging, or knitting. I think that’s enough to fully explain podcasts’ popularity without any claim that audio is overall easier to consume than text for any substantial population.
Finally I realized that non-nerds actually find listening easier than reading.
A lot of nerds listen to podcast. I’d estimate 80% plus of my communication is textual and that includes with family, and I’m a father.
I listen to several hours of podcats per week. Podcasts aren’t two way communication. Like text they can be left alone and returned to at will. They can be educational and or entertainment. My favourite podcasts are those which are mostly other people conversing with each other over some debatable ideas. Audiobooks can be good too. I mostly listen to these during routine work, walking or cycling.
seem to prefer e.g. Skype calls over text chats because (to these people) voice chat requires less energy than writing, and feels like just having a normal conversation and thus effortless, whereas writing is something that requires actually thinking about what you say and thus feels much more laborious
I think most people prefer these modes to text and that we’re the exception. There is some positive emotional payoff to hearing and seeing friends and loved ones. I’ve noticed that many people will skype or phone when the want to share positive things, but email or text when the message is a nagative or confrontational one. Lots of breakups happen via text butI imagine very few marriage proposals do.
Note that many people seem to prefer e.g. Skype calls over text chats because (to these people) voice chat requires less energy than writing, and feels like just having a normal conversation and thus effortless, whereas writing is something that requires actually thinking about what you say and thus feels much more laborious.
This would explain why I have been contacted by a number of people such as journalists interested in talking or interviewing me and proposing use of Skype, only to never reply when I say I don’t use Skype and we can just chat on IRC.
Personally I prefer speaking to writing but I prefer reading to listening. I believe part of the reason is that I set myself higher standards when I write. For instance, in a conversation I would be satisfied to finish this comment with just the first sentence, but here I want to elaborate.
For short conversations, video/voice may be more effective because it’s slightly faster.
However, spending the bulk of the day in video/voice conversations is a lot more fatiguing than spending it using text-based communication [EDIT: I’m quite likely mistaken about this, see the followup comments].
I think the people who’re not used to text-based communication generally just end up spending less time communicating, and/or work in group environments in physical proximity to others where one can talk occasionally.
btw, I think I can both talk and type for far longer durations than the median world resident. But my typing stamina may be substantially greater than my talking stamina, so I may be expressing typical mind fallacy in the proportional angle.
Note that many people seem to prefer e.g. Skype calls over text chats because (to these people) voice chat requires less energy than writing, and feels like just having a normal conversation and thus effortless, whereas writing is something that requires actually thinking about what you say and thus feels much more laborious.
A lot of people also seem to find audio easier to consume than text: podcasts would be a lot less popular otherwise. (I never understood podcasts at first. Why not just write? Finally I realized that non-nerds actually find listening easier than reading.)
Headphones and a good call quality together fix this, I think? Haven’t tried, though.
Audio is easier to consume when full attention isn’t available. It’s not easy to read a book while driving, jogging, or knitting. I think that’s enough to fully explain podcasts’ popularity without any claim that audio is overall easier to consume than text for any substantial population.
A lot of nerds listen to podcast. I’d estimate 80% plus of my communication is textual and that includes with family, and I’m a father.
I listen to several hours of podcats per week. Podcasts aren’t two way communication. Like text they can be left alone and returned to at will. They can be educational and or entertainment. My favourite podcasts are those which are mostly other people conversing with each other over some debatable ideas. Audiobooks can be good too. I mostly listen to these during routine work, walking or cycling.
I think most people prefer these modes to text and that we’re the exception. There is some positive emotional payoff to hearing and seeing friends and loved ones. I’ve noticed that many people will skype or phone when the want to share positive things, but email or text when the message is a nagative or confrontational one. Lots of breakups happen via text butI imagine very few marriage proposals do.
This would explain why I have been contacted by a number of people such as journalists interested in talking or interviewing me and proposing use of Skype, only to never reply when I say I don’t use Skype and we can just chat on IRC.
Personally I prefer speaking to writing but I prefer reading to listening. I believe part of the reason is that I set myself higher standards when I write. For instance, in a conversation I would be satisfied to finish this comment with just the first sentence, but here I want to elaborate.
For short conversations, video/voice may be more effective because it’s slightly faster.
However, spending the bulk of the day in video/voice conversations is a lot more fatiguing than spending it using text-based communication [EDIT: I’m quite likely mistaken about this, see the followup comments].
I think the people who’re not used to text-based communication generally just end up spending less time communicating, and/or work in group environments in physical proximity to others where one can talk occasionally.
Do you have actual data on this? Otherwise I’m very tempted to call typical mind.
On the claim:
It seems that I was wrong.
The following sources contradict me: http://calorielab.com/burned/?mo=se&gr=09&ti=miscellaneous+activities&q=&wt=150&un=lb&kg=68 and http://www.my-calorie-counter.com/Calories_Burned/
Some random Internet comments corroborate me. For instance, scott preston writes at http://radar.oreilly.com/2011/03/stephan-spencer-seo-future-search.html: “In fact speaking takes a lot more energy to than typing does.”
I’ll look this up more and update if I find more reliable information.
I would expect the relevant factor to be mental, not physical, exertion. Unfortunately that’s a lot harder to measure.
btw, I think I can both talk and type for far longer durations than the median world resident. But my typing stamina may be substantially greater than my talking stamina, so I may be expressing typical mind fallacy in the proportional angle.