THE RISE IN VOICE NOTES’ POPULARITY However you like to call them, voice notes or memo, audio or ‘voiceys’, are becoming a preferred way to communicate among Gen Z when you’ve got anything more than a few sentences to communicate. The feature was first rolled out by the Chinese messaging app WeChat in 2011. Now, nearly every social media platform, dating app and beyond has some form of the feature installed into their messaging services. Why? For many young people, they’re fast and easy, thus making it suitable for multitasking situations. Emily, 25, who we spoke to via The Love Network, says “voice notes are so handy for catching up with friends, especially if you’re in different time zones or have different time commitments. It means you can catch up without trying to play telephone tennis.” Communicating via voice notes has the effect of real-time conversation, without the pressure of an actual call - yes, phone anxiety is real for Gen Z. It allows you to tell a long, complicated story, give advice to a friend, or just shoot the breeze. They remove the intensity of video calls, scheduling time to talk or alternatively, writing a long life update essay as an SMS message. The medium also allows the receiver to answer at their own time, thus creating a sense of control - you choose when you want to listen to one rather than being forced to answer an intrusive telephone call which for some such only be used in ‘an emergency’. “Phone calls, for me and many others of my generation, are reserved for the important moments, for catastrophic situations warranting a certain level of immediate panic.” Shaeden Berry, Why do Gen Z and Millennials hate phone calls so much? Fashion Journal, Australia The continued growth in popularity of sending a voice note in recent years is also a response to overloaded screens with long-form written texts, pictures, gifs and short-form video. Coming out of the pandemic, Gen Z felt like they had hit peak screen-time, with 76% saying they felt they spent too much time on their phones. Not everyone is a fan though. Speaking to Vox, Matt Navorro says “I don’t want to have to stop and listen to you talk for three minutes or whatever. I just want to have a back-and-forth conversation. It can be quite annoying that you are monopolizing their time.” Listening to other people’s free flowing conversation isn’t necessarily enjoyable, especially if it's a rant. In 2021, audio-only app Clubhouse rose to popularity quickly before losing relevance. Without the one-to-one conversation capabilities, it lost its charm. |
