Nick Jordan comments on his aversion to telephones.
I feel the same way. I worked for a couple of years as a customer services manager, I'm not sure if it was this that put me off using telephones or if I have always been this way. I'm certainly not scared of using the phone, I spend a great deal of my working days using one, it's just that I prefer to use e-mail. Having successful telephone conversations (I'm talking work rather than pleasure) certainly requires some skill, I find that I often put the phone down and realise that I have not got all my points across.
Using e-mail is the easier option as far as I'm concerned, I rely on e-mail as a business tool more that I probably should. I wonder if the increased use of e-mail will effect the conversational skills of the next generation in the same way pocket calculators have reduced the ability of my generation to do mathematics without one. (I'm generalising here)