Here is an area where my failure is as great as my success was in the business arena. I've tried myriad ways of easing myself out of long personal conversations when the message was already conveyed. Despite diligent and persistent efforts, I've never met with success. Yes, I've succeeded in shortening the conversation but this has been done consistently at the expense of graciousness. The caller feels I've been curt, even impolite, and he has reached this conclusion exclusively because I did not want to talk when he wanted to talk.
Phone calls are interruptions.
If the receiver gets enough of these calls, he is unable to do the work he intended. Even if he were miraculously able to keep all of his calls short, his concentration is broken and his effectiveness is thwarted. Simply stated, this is the essence of my dislike of the phone. As a writer, I enjoy observing social mores which perhaps others do not notice so acutely. If you're having dinner with a new friend, he will think nothing of it if you say you'd prefer pasta to chow mein.