Do you also prefer chat over a phone call?

Few days back I checked this hilarious advertisement by Quickr, wherein a man had stickies pasted all around his room and is talking to someone. Soon after he realized that he was talking to the wrong person on phone. Why? Check out the video above.

This advertisement made me think about how we tend to misinterpret or forget information exchanged over phone calls. I have noticed my close friends forgetting about some of the important calls, which could have brought them new business. There is very less probability to lose such information if exchanged over emails. But exchanging emails has overheads and it also becomes very formal. So chat is handy in such scenarios. And it keeps a track of all conversations and important information. If chatting tools are smart, organizing such chats can be extremely convenient and useful. 

Here are some of the reasons, I prefer chat over telephone call. 

1. Record keeping - When you expect to have multiple sessions to exchange information, chat becomes a good medium. One can always revisit past conversations and you won't miss out on any details discussed earlier.

2. You get time to respond well - On chat, you have time to think and respond, which is not an option on phone. Once or twice you can ask for time on phone as well, but that would not be practical for every exchange of information/thought.

3. Lesser probability of miscommunication - There are lesser chances of miscommunication when you are chatting with someone. Although it's debatable but I feel that references in chat ensure that communication is clear all across. And of course in a phone call it is all too possible that you mishear certain things.

4. Opportunity to multi-talk :) and multitask - This is a well known fact that everyone wants to multitask and chat provides you that opportunity. While on phone, it's not practical to be busy with other things. That can really spoil the whole conversation.
  

5. Cheaper option when you want to connect with people living abroad. Chat is definitely much cheaper than a telephonic call.  

Apart from these, there are lot of other reasons. Do you know that all telecom companies don't make profits from calls, but major chunk of profits comes from value-added services. Also if we look at the lifestyle of people around us, most of the folks spend far more time on chat as compared to telephone call. In chat, communication happens at the same level. On a call, there is a higher probability that one person overpowers the other. I believe that chatting is comparatively secure as well. The way phone numbers are exploited by unknowns is something which can easily be avoided through chats. 

As a photography enthusiast, I love the fact that you can also share photographs on chat which is definitely not possible on a telephonic call :). And video chat can make things far more convenient and interesting. I have a 2-year-old niece and only video chat can do justice to our conversation because we are able to look at each other :).

What are your views on this? Do share your thoughts through comments...