You ever find yourself searching back some conversation and realize it was probably said during some call and it’s gone forever? That alone makes written communication a 10x improvement over calls.
Another big one is you can have real-time discussions on chat with multiple people and actually type at the same time and still follow the conversation. On audio calls you can’t talk through each other. It’s way slower information processing.
It’s also why people get bored and doze off on calls or IRL meetings with multiple people, they’re not engaged.
And you can actually be in multiple threads or messaging apps at the same time. Much much more efficient. Chat is also way more democratizing:
- you don’t need to have access to an extra quiet room
- you don’t need fancy equipment
- you don’t need a great internet connection
- it doesn’t matter what accent you have or if you stutter etc.
- if English is your first language
