I honestly can’t remember the last time I made a phone call. I don’t think I’ve ever done that in my life. (Never?) Never. I don’t think it’s ever come up.

Generation mute is the phenomenon where we actually see young people prefer to text and use social media to communicate, rather than pick up a phone or have a conversation with each other.

I talk to my friends on WhatsApp, Twitter, sometimes, or Facebook Messenger – just anything that’s typing. Days upon days of messages!

Obviously, calling is the easier thing to do, but I just… I just don’t like it.

For me, phone calls are actually the worst. My sister lives in Dubai, she realised how awkward I was on the phone and she asked me… … “I don’t want to put you in a position where you’re uncomfortable. Is there of a better way to contact you?” And I said, “Yes, via email, please!” I don’t know how to handle that side of me very well.

My friends, I still feel… find it a bit weird talking to them, and hearing their voice and hearing them, you know, give real responses to things, I don’t like it. But I know that it’s an important part of making a connection with someone.

Text-based interaction is hard because you lose everything that you have when there’s somebody actually talking to you. So, you not only don’t have a face, you don’t have a voice, you haven’t got emotion and intonation and all the other stuff you’re hearing in somebody’s voice when they’re talking to you, because you just have words.

It took me five years to answer a phone call from my boss. When I answered the phone to her, she was like, “Oh Darren, you answered!” I’m like, “Yeh, surprise!”

The problem for employers is that this “generation mute” is very much a generation of people who are most comfortable typing and not talking. What we’ve noticed is there is a change. You used to bring someone in. You would automatically assume they‘d know how to answer a phone. And now, those basic skills are skills that we have to train. In a place of work, then, voice is king.

How people deal with stressful situations is actually marked in how they use communication skills in an interaction. So, couples who deal with a stressful situation with positive affect and laughter in a conversation feel better than couples where one person is laughing and the other person is not laughing. So, we get more bang for our buck out of talking to each other than we do from anything else.

It probably is like a generation thing. Obviously, our parents and grandparents did just have house phones and they never had mobiles or anything like that.

What you’re seeing is a generation who don’t need to pick up the phone because they’re able to use text-based interactions on their phones in a much more complex way.

People are marking their difference, and they’re allowed to. So, younger people are allowed to say, “We’re just not doing it like you, this is how we communicate and we are not the same as you.” And that’s a rolling pattern of change. You get it across fashion, you get it across all sorts of different aspects of music and cultural tastes and you get it in how people choose to communicate.
(End)

• To come up (phrasal verb): to be mentioned or talked about in conversation.
• A generation (noun): all the people of about the same age within a family or a society.
• Mute (adjective): silent or not speaking.
• A phenomenon (noun): something that happens or exists, especially unusual or interesting.
• To pick up something (phrasal verb): to lift or use something using your hands.
• To type (verb): to write using a machine, normally a computer keyboard.
• Days upon days (idiom): for many days in a row, for a very long time.
• Obviously (adverb): in a way that easy to see or understand.
• Awkward (adjective): nervous or embarrassed.
• To put someone in a position (phrase): to cause someone to be a particular situation, especially one that is difficult or uncomfortable.
• To handle something (verb): to deal with or have responsibility for something.
• A side of someone (noun): a part or aspect of a person’s personality.
• Weird (adjective): very strange or unusual, not natural.
• A response (noun): an answer or a reaction.
• A connection (noun): a feeling of closeness or understanding between two people.
• -based (suffix): used to describe how something has developed or where it has come from.
• Interaction (noun): communication between two or more people or things.
• Intonation (noun): the way your voice goes up and down when you speak.
• An employer (noun): a person or organisation that gives a job to another person.
• To bring someone in (phrasal verb): to ask or employ someone to do a particular job.
• Automatically (adverb): something you do without thinking about it.
• To assume (verb): to accept something as true without questioning it or needing proof.
• To be king (phrase): to be the most important or most powerful thing in a situation.
• To deal with something (phrasal verb): to take action to manage something or solve a problem.
• Marked (adjective): clearly shown or noticeable.
• Affect (noun): a particular emotion, mood, or reaction to something.
• To get more bang for your buck (idiom): to get a better result for the amount of effort or money you have put into something.
• Complex (adjective): not simple, with many different parts.
• To mark something (verb): to show or highlight something, especially a difference.
• A rolling pattern (phrase): a repeated or continuous change over time.
• Across (preposition): in many or all parts.
• All sorts of (phrase): many different types of something.
• An aspect (noun): one part of a situation, subject, area, etc.
• Tastes (noun): the things a person likes.

In this text, there are different examples of indefinite pronouns. We use them to talk about people, things, and places without saying exactly who or what they are.

People: somebody/ someone, anybody/ anyone, nobody/ no one, everybody/ everyone

Things: something, anything, nothing, everything

Places: somewhere, anywhere, nowhere, everywhere

Indefinite pronouns are singular words, so we use a third person singular verb with them:

‘Everybody loves pizza!’    ‘No one listens to the teacher.’    ‘Somebody needs to ask a question.’

However, we also use ‘they’, ‘them’, or ‘their’ to refer to these unnamed people:

‘Anyone who wants a slice needs to pass their plate.’   ‘Someone forgot their wallet. It belongs to them.’

We can add ‘s to an indefinite pronoun to make a possessive:

‘Is this cup of coffee anyone’s?’   ‘We’re going to someone’s party next week.’

Some-: Specific affirmative (positive) sentences or offers: ‘There’s someone at the door.’   ‘I’d like to go somewhere hot on holiday.’   ‘Would you like something to eat?’  

Any-: Non-specific positive sentences, negatives, questions: ‘We can go anywhere you want.’   ‘I can’t see anyone.’   ‘Does anybody need anything?’

No-: Means not any: ‘There’s nothing I can do.’     ‘Nobody came to help.’   ‘Nowhere is open.’

Every-: Means all: ‘Everywhere is expensive.’   ‘Everyone had a good time.’    ‘They ate everything!’

Examples in the text

• … just anything that’s typing: ‘anything’ is used here in a non-specific positive sentence, to mean whatever form of written communication is OK.
• … it’s an important part of making a connection with someone: ‘someone’ is used here in a positive sentence, to refer to a specified (but unnamed) person (‘anyone’ would fit here, as the sentence is discussing a general idea – but ‘anyone’ would mean any person at all).
• … you lose everything that you have when there’s somebody actually talking to you: ‘everything’ is used here to refer to all the things included in speech; ‘somebody’ is used to refer to a specified person present in the situation (‘anybody’ does not fit in this context, as the sentence refers to a specific context).
• … somebody’s voice when they‘re talking to you: ‘somebody’s’ is used here as a possessive pronoun to refer a voice that belongs to a specified person; ‘they’ is used to refer to this unknown person (‘anybody’s’ does not fit in this context, as the sentence refers to a specific context).
• You used to bring someone in… they …: ‘someone’ + ‘they’ is used here, to refer to a specified (but unnamed) person (‘anyone’ would fit here, as the sentence is discussing a general idea – but ‘anyone’ would mean any person at all).
• … they never had mobiles or anything like that: ‘anything’ is used here in a negative sentence to mean ‘other similar things’ (‘something’ does not fit here in this negative sentence).

https://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/grammar/english-grammar-reference/indefinite-pronouns

https://www.perfect-english-grammar.com/something-anything-nothing-everything.html

https://www.englishpodcastscollected.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/BBC-Ideas-Ive-never-made-a-phone-call-in-my-life.pdf

https://www.englishpodcastscollected.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/BBC-Ideas-Ive-never-made-a-phone-call-in-my-life.docx