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In-person vs. digital
There's a share of Boomers, Gen X, Millennials, and Gen Z that all hold value in face-to-face interactions. Although we're nearly 5 years removed from a pandemic event that exploded the need and reliance on digital communications, 32% of Gen Z up to 52% of Boomers prefer having interactions person to person.
Yet, no two communication forms is favored by a generation.
While face-to-face communication is valued by each generation, putting preference pairs together proves difficult. For Gen Z, 55% like face-to-face and email. Millennials lean 45% for in-person and texts similar to 57% of Gen X for the same. Yet Boomers prefer 68% of face to face with phone calls. Even considering the varied paired preferences, no combination would include 3 out of 4 within that generation.
As Back to the Future 2 predicted, video calling was available by 2015.
Younger generations, indeed, had higher preferences for video calls with 7% of Gen Z, 6% of Millennials, 4% of Gen X, and just 2% of Boomers.
Voicemails in decline, but not voice notes
Millennials (13%) and Gen Z (7%) led the charge on skipping the finger clicking texts and pushing their microphone button instead to leave a voice note. Many respondents remarked on the value of hearing a person's voice in the conversation, including in short voice notes.
Deep vs. Quick
Each of these instances focused on longer forms of communication. Yet, our days are more full with frequent, short exchanges. While it was interesting to note each generations' value in face to face interactions, generational preferences and frustrations can run deeper in the quicker interactions.
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