Welcome • User Guide
ToS • Privacy • Canary
Donate • Bugs • License

©2025 Poal.co

1.0K

Over the past few years I've been reaching out to various men's organizations with varying effect. I've had the time to scrutinize past and recent interactions and noticed recurring patterns. If I came across an organization online and left my contact information, usually my email and phone number, if the option was present I'd check off email as being the best way to contact me otherwise I would only leave my email address. Yet, I rarely received emails. Almost all the initial contact attempts would be by telephone, but the contact would rarely if ever leave a message if I wasn't available to pick up.

It got me to ask myself, are men simply uncomfortable with writing?

Over the past few years I've been reaching out to various men's organizations with varying effect. I've had the time to scrutinize past and recent interactions and noticed recurring patterns. If I came across an organization online and left my contact information, usually my email and phone number, if the option was present I'd check off email as being the best way to contact me otherwise I would only leave my email address. Yet, I rarely received emails. Almost all the initial contact attempts would be by telephone, but the contact would rarely if ever leave a message if I wasn't available to pick up. It got me to ask myself, are men simply uncomfortable with writing?

(post is archived)

[–] • 1 pt

Just so im clear, are you talking about the ability to write a letter or type an email?

Because those are two different skill sets and Id bet money most men over 35 or 40 don't type well...certainly not well enough to effectively communicate to a stranger with questions.

[–] • 1 pt

You'll have to explain the difference between handwriting a letter and typing an email, beyond the respective formats they require the writer to use.

[–] [deleted] • 0 pt

Probably not uncomfortable, more likely they have time to contact you and want to get it over with instead of writing an email, waiting awhile for a response, then reading the email and responding.

[–] • 0 pt

So basically, force of habit.

[–] • 0 pt

beyond the respective formats they require the writer to use.

That's the difference and its crucial. They've been teaching kids to write for over a century and it was all you needed to communicate non-verbally over distances. That changed about 25 years ago.

Within a very short time frame (less than a generation), writing became antiquated. A piece of paper & pen wasn't enough anymore. Now you needed a personal computer, you needed to understand how to use it, you needed to pay an internet provider monthly and you needed to know how to type fluently...not just pecking at letters but actually using all your fingers to coherently express ones thoughts and ideas

We're talking about people that never took a typing class in school because, unlike writing, it wasn't required. If they did, it was by choice, was probably in front of a typewriter and wasn't offered until high school. Knowing how to type fluently was for secretaries (women), a few white collar jobs and journalists. Working class and Blue collar men didn't need to know how to type. Not until later in their lives was it suddenly required that everyone know how to type using a computer.

But sometimes you can't teach an old dog new tricks and the idea of sitting in front of a computer, logging into an email account and trying to convey themselves through a keyboard is just too much of a hassle for someone that didn't grow up using it daily. A verbal conversation is easier and more straight forward.