Why Millennials Don’t Answer Your Calls

Millenials tend to ignore their phones whenever it rings and someone calls them. Why is that? A study looked into the matter and discovered some of the prominent reasons why people in this age group do it.

In a survey of over 1,200 U.S. millenials born between 1981 and 1996 (aged between 22-37 years old), phone trading site BankMyCell found that most of the people belonging to “Generation Mute,” or the generation of people who would rather text or send a message than accept phone calls, think that phone calls aren’t worth answering.

Reasons they ignore calls

The survey discovered certain situations that would make the typical millenial want to avoid a phone call. Here’s the top three: 75% of respondents said they don’t answer because calls eat up their time; 64% said they won’t answer if the person calling them is a “whiny” or “needy” type of person; while 55% of calls are avoided because the millenial is busy and needs to turn up to an event.

Other situations where millenials ignore calls include those where the caller is expected to ask a favor from the person being called (49%), a call will lead to verbal confrontation (46%), answering a call means the conversation will be heard by people around the millenial (41%) and calls made while the millenial has some work responsibilities to attend to (37%).

Conjectures

Based on the data obtained, here are some of the conjectures or likely reasons millenials have for not answering calls:

• Time-consuming. Millenials don’t want to answer calls because they don’t know if it would take a long time. They would rather communicate faster and get straight answers.
• Disruptive. Millenials don’t want their activities derailed by a random call anytime of the day.
• Presumptuous. Calls give millenials the impression that their needs are smaller compared to the caller’s and can be interrupted regardless of what they’re doing.
• Inefficient. Millenials prefer using messaging services as these allow them to respond whenever convenient for them. What’s more, by using messaging services, they can go straight to the point.
• Stressful. Calls are disruptive and can affect someone’s productivity.
• Conflict. People like to avoid conflict. Random, unexpected calls put them in situations where they’re vulnerable and unable to compose themselves.

Aside from explaining the reasons why millenials tend to ignore calls, it also details whose calls they tend to ignore, and the common excuse they make when they ignore them. Those who want to get a better look can go over to BankMyCell to read the report.