Telephobia: a side effect of new forms of socialising?
Institutional Communication Service
5 September 2024
Telephobia, or the fear of answering the phone, seems to be a growing phenomenon: and not only affecting young people. People avoid answering the phone and feel a sense of anxiety when they hear it ring. In an article recently published by RSI online, Gabriele Balbi, Professor at the Faculty of Communication, Culture and Society and Pro-Rector for Education and Students' Experience, explained how the mistrust that young people feel towards answering the phone is not surprising and is not necessarily a negative phenomenon.
Instead, it is a symptom of the changing communication and social landscape, which now offers more practical ways of interaction; the younger generations therefore opt for communication systems that are more suited to them, to which they are more accustomed.
The phenomenon of telephobia, for which no data is available in Ticino, has been studied in Great Britain, where 25 per cent of respondents between 18 and 34 years of age said they do not answer the phone, the percentage of those who say they feel anxiety when hearing the phone ring ranges from 40 to 70 per cent depending on age. Among the main reasons for telephobia, the Social Anxiety Alliance team points to the fact that during a phone call one can be caught unprepared by unexpected and sudden questions or requests and the absence of facial expressions that make it easier to understand one's caller.
The article was published on both the RSI Internet portal at this link and its Swiss-French counterpart RTS at this link.
