Psychology says people who prefer texting to phone calls aren't being antisocial - they're protecting the quality of their thinking from the demands of real-time performance - Silicon Canals

"The preference for asynchronous communication isn't primarily about avoidance or antisociality. For a large portion of the people who hold it, it's a form of cognitive self-preservation - the choice to protect the quality of their thinking from the specific demands that real-time verbal performance places on it."

"A phone call is cognitively demanding in a way that is easy to underestimate from the outside, especially for people who find it effortless. When you speak on the phone, your brain is running several processes at once: listening to what the other person is saying, holding the content of what they've said in working memory while continuing to process incoming speech."

"Research on language production models identifies at minimum three distinct stages that must execute in rapid sequence when speaking: constructing a message, formulating it into phonetic strings, and executing it through articulation - with each stage making demands on working memory while the previous stage's output is still being processed."

Many people apologize for preferring text over phone calls, viewing calls as the mature form of communication. However, psychology suggests that asynchronous communication is a means of cognitive self-preservation. Phone calls require significant cognitive effort, involving multiple processes such as listening, memory retention, response formulation, and social cue monitoring. This cognitive load is substantial, as research indicates that speaking involves several rapid stages that demand working memory, making it a challenging form of interaction for many individuals.

Read at Silicon Canals