Today, February 4th, marks 21 years since the social media network Facebook launched and since that time it has changed the way people communicate with one another. Facebook has allowed people the ability to endlessly message with friends and family, it’s allowed people to post anything they want without fact checking, and it’s given people the opportunity to debate every subject under the moon respectfully or very disrespectfully.
Despite all these forms of social media and communication, one piece of technology has become a challenge for the younger generation – the telephone. A relatively new phobia, called “telephobia,” has surfaced and it has made one college in the United Kingdom start a class on how to overcome the fear of phone calls.
Nottingham College in Nottingham, England has started teaching new students the art of the telephone call. They teach confidence and etiquette on the phone by practicing phone calls using scripts and coaching. In a way, they’re being taught on how to converse with fellow human beings and they must practice their skill in a real phone call at least once a week with either a friend or family member.
What causes “telephobia?” There are numerous reasons but according to multiple sources the top four include performance anxiety, depression, PTSD, and being very introverted.
According to a survey done by Uswitch of two thousand students aged 18-34, most (70 per cent) much prefer texts over phone calls and 23 per cent admitted to not answering calls when their phone rang.
