Phone-phobia grips Korea as texting ruins communication skills

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Phone-phobia grips Korea as texting ruins communication skills

Published: 25 Jan. 2023, 18:13 Updated: 25 Jan. 2023, 18:57

[SHUTTERSTOCK]

Text-centric youngins in Korea are experiencing phone-phobia, scared to use their handsets for their original purpose.

Some are taking lessons to learn the lost art of answering the phone.

“There are a lot of times when I have to talk over the phone at work, but I make a big sigh before even picking up the receiver,” said a 26-year-old who started working last year.

“I write in advance what I have to say, practice two or three times and then pick up the receiver because I’m not used to it. I even received tutoring on speech because of the anxiety of speaking over the phone at work, but it still feels awkward.”

A growing number of people born between 1980 and the early 2000s are experiencing similar difficulties as they’ve become used to communicating in short texts or messages via social media.

This has increased the popularity of speech tutoring, which costs between 30,000 won ($25) and 99,000 won per hour.

“A lot of the requests on classes are made by the newly employed,” said a speech tutor. “I teach speech manners and how to initiate small talks with boss or colleagues.”

Call-phobia is making communications challenging amongst colleagues.

“When I call a junior co-worker that just got hired, they often don’t pick up the phone but text me instead,” said an employee who works at a large company. “I called to minimize unnecessary misunderstandings and to communicate compactly, but it feels like I have to receive an approval to be able to give a phone call through the messenger.”

A similar phenomenon has been spotted overseas.

The Phone Lady, a Canada-based consultancy, was established to help people improve phone etiquette. The woman charges $480 an hour to help young workers overcome their fear of talking on the phone.

“Gen Zs have never had the skills given to them,” The Phone Lady CEO Mary Jane Copps told Insider in an interview published in December. “Gen Zs and millennials have a lot less experience talking on the phone because texting and instant messaging have been the primary communication mode for their generation.”

“Call phobia existed even before the Covid-19 pandemic, but the phenomenon aggravated as the people experienced a long period of contactless communications,” said Kwak Keum-joo, professor at Seoul National University’s Department of Developmental Psychology.

“There will be a lot of cases in which those newly hired did not have time to build intimacy with co-workers as they telecommuted. They weren’t given the opportunity to understand the co-workers’ personality and solve problems together.”

The solution to communicating with those experiencing call phobia is to briefly deliver messages that are necessary, Kwak added. And those with call-phobia should raise the frequency of talking over the phone to become familiar with the communication method.

BY KO SUK-HYUN [jin.minji@joongang.co.kr]