GET THE MEMO
Why sending voice notes is better than sex (kind of).
Somewhere between a text and a phone call sits the voice note – a short audio recording sent via Whatsapp or Messenger – with more personality than a typed missive but without the back-andforth (or ringtone anxiety) of a call. Whether detailing the happenings of your weekend, or thinking aloud about upcoming plans (“Should we meet at my place first? I’ll grab a red. Bring the cheese you brought last time. Or maybe orange wine?”) you can achieve more with a couple of quick voice notes than even the most rapid-fire text exchange.
Once the preferred medium of high-powered business types to send directives to their PAS, or parents with no hands free to text, 200 million voice messages are now sent every day via Whatsapp alone. It’s little wonder – because they can be sent and then played (and played back) at any time, they’re a solution to the modern problem that many friends, SOS and colleagues have when operating on different timezones or schedules.
One member of the ELLE team and her LDR boyfriend send them to and fro, so they can go back and hit play and hear each other’s voices on cue, even if they keep missing each other by phone. “There’s something exciting about seeing that little microphone icon when you least expect it, hearing their voice… and then sending a witty reply. Our rule is that voice notes are a little like nudes; you’ve got to send one to receive one.”
Voice notes are symptomatic of how much we now rely on our devices; whether that be creating a shopping list, asking for directions, or wondering “what the best friend from Ferris Bueller’s Day
Off looks like now”. It’s estimated that by 2020, half of all web searches will be done by voice, so it seems counterintuitive to revert back to text to chat to friends. And in a futile social environment that has little forgiveness for mixed messages, it’s risky to leave the texted word, often devoid of personality and tone, open to( m is) interpretation.
Then there’s the added bonus that getting a clip from a familiar voice can be a pick-me-up. Hearing a loved-one’s voice can lower cortisol levels and increase those of oxytocin, but studies have also shown that hearing someone’s voice can help us build empathy for them just as effectively as if we saw their face. Another study found that our sense of hearing may be even stronger than our sight when it comes to accurately detecting emotion, suggesting that without visual cues or facial expression to go off, the brain works overtime to pick up nuances in someone’s voice. So next time you’ve got something important to say, hit record.
“OUR RULE IS THAT VOICE NOTES ARE A LITTLE LIKE NUDES; YOU’VE GOT TO SEND ONE TO RECEIVE ONE”