I'll talk on the phone... but only because I have the excuse to get off at any time. I have kids. ;-) But overall, I prefer face to face or email.

I prefer phone to email if it is someone I know well... email or chat for strangers or mere acquaintances. Chat is good for friends as well, if it is more convenient than the phone.

I think I'm addicted to IM...I don't like chat rooms and e-mail is too slow for me but Yahoo IM is just right. It's funny, I don't have a bf, but the guy I date most often is ALSO addicted to IM and we spent an hour or so IM-ing every night. What's cool about it is that you do indeed have times of immediacy and times when you can be doing something else and respond a few minutes later. It's alot like having a conversation, only on semi-delay. I'm also addicted to Yahoo Pool and their version of scrabble. I don't know what it says about both of us that we'd rather IM than talk on the phone.

The smallest-bandwidth method, whatever it be, is my favorite. Just don't make me look at their *eyes*!

Ever since I worked on tech phone support, I hate talking on the phone. I even hate going through the drive through.

I hate phones, with a passion. I tend to avoid them. But I've been that way for years now, before I ever started blogging.

Oh yes, big BIG email I am. Phones? Not so much.

I guess I'll have to be the exception. If you're talking about speaking with people I know and love, I'd much rather talk to them on the phone.

As wonderful as I think chat/IM is as a tool to communicate (and believe me -- I have several very dear friends I met through my volunteer days at Hecklers Online, a goodly portion of whom I've never actually met in person) it just can't duplicate modulated tones, voice inflection, and the sound of someone you love.

Think of it: how many times have you asked someone what is wrong and they've said, "Nothing."

In IM/Chat, you would take that as face value, right? On the phone, you can hear their inflection and glean that, although the word is "nothing," something is definitely not right.

Knowhutimean?

But telemarketers, sales people, bill collectors, etc.? PAH. I don't wanna talk to THEM. ;o)

Thank God for answering machines! What was it that swamp woman in Looziannuh said? "I ain't never got no good news on the telephone, ever."

E-mail/IM first... in person second (unless they're good, good friends, and then in person is first)... phone dead last. I hate the phone.

I hate the telephone. Face-to-face conversation is my preferred mode. I dislike IM and chat rooms, because you don't get tone, inflection or body language.