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Nottingham College in the United Kingdom offers a Telephobia course to help students anxiety for phone calls.
Jamie Grill | Photodisc | Getty images
There was a time when collecting a phone call was the main communication mode, but now with the endless options available, some technology experts are consumed with anxiety for the sound of a phone.
Generation Z, born between 1997 and 2012, is struggling with Telepobia, a “relatively recent phenomenon” that describes people who fear phone calls, according to Liz Baxter, career advisor at Nottingham College, a school for headquarters based in the headquarters in the United Kingdom from 16 to 18 years and older.
“Telephobia is a fear or anxiety to make and receive phone calls,” Baxter told CNBC in an interview.
“They (gen z) have simply not had the opportunity to make and receive phone calls. It is not the main function of their phones these days, they can do anything by phone, but we automatically stay text messages, voice notes, notes, Voice notes, and anything, except to use a phone for their original purpose, and therefore people have lost that ability, “he explained.
Baxter said that many of the oldest students in the University will take telephone interviews as a prior requirement of job requests and “fell into that obstacle”, because they lacked the consciousness and confidence of navigating a call.
“In a class of 25 to 30 students, I imagine that at least three quarters will experience and admit anxiety not to use the phone,” he said.
The University Telephobia Seminar is part of a series of career -related sessions to help the students’ telephone skills return to zero.
The session involves practicing a series of scenarios where you have to make a phone call, for example, call doctors to make an appointment, calling sick work and other daily scenarios. Students are expected to feel again to imitate a regular phone call where they cannot see the person at the other end and practice using scripts.
Baxter said attending only one session increases students’ confidence because it demystifies how phone calls really work.
She said that the ascent of Telephobia can be blamed in part to the Covid-19 pandemic, during which the young people were isolatedly isolated.
“If two years of social interaction and flow and flow have been lost, then that obviously plays how they feel about being in social situations (and) in larger contexts, especially when they feel uncomfortable.”
‘They think you’re laughing at them’
The anxiety of the Z generation for responding to telephone calls comes from fear of the unknown, according to Baxter.
“They associate the phone with fear,” he said. “I don’t know who is in the end. I don’t know how to deal with that.”
TO USWitch survey Of 2,000 adults from the United Kingdom in 2024 they found that almost a quarter of 18 to 34 years never receive phone calls. About 61% of the age group prefers to receive a message instead of an audio call.
More than half of young people aged 18 to 24 think that a phone call outside the blue means bad news, while 48% prefer to communicate using social networks, and more than a third prefer voice messages.
The Z generation is also worried about how they sound on calls, since they do not have visual feedback to confirm how Baxter said.
“Interestingly, many of our students feel really comfortable in Microsoft Equipment because you can see the visual clues. You can read your face. They can judge their reactions. You can see how they are.
“I think that plays in a large part of anxiety when it comes to calls only audio. They can’t see you. They think you’re laughing at them, or think you’re judging them, so they are not returning that answer to make sure how they are. “
‘Recover power’
Telephone calls are not afraid, Baxter said, emphasizing that there are some easy way to prepare to attend a call if you expect one.
“The best thing about phone calls and audio calls is that you can cheat. You can use post-it pad comes to support them to find the right answers. “
This begins with the preparation of your surroundings, so make sure to be in a quiet and safe space, where it is not interrupted, and your phone is loaded and working, Baxter said.
The racing advisor explained that if the call is for an interview, then investigating the organization is useful.
“So write a small script. Think about what you are going to say. That can help minimize your anxiety,” he said. This can be helped by writing tricks, which can remind you of what it means.
Finally, the Telephobia seminar also encourages breathing exercises, if a call makes someone feel anxious or overwhelmed.
“We encourage students to breathe deeply, contain their breath, let it out slowly and then notice the resulting difference in the deceleration of beats and make you feel much quieter,” Baxter said.
The young people are accustomed to associating phone calls with negative things, but Baxter teaches their students that someone could be calling to congratulate them for moving on to the next stage of the interview, or that they have approved their exam.
“Therefore, he is trying to see that responding to his phone call should not be dangerous, and that they are very control … he is encouraging our students to recover power and (knowing that) if this phone call is something that I don’t want to, I have the option to finish the phone call, and that gives me energy ‘”.
