Why does sending voice messages on WeChat indicate low emotional intelligence and impoliteness?

Many people may have had this experience: when you open WeChat, a voice message suddenly pops up on the screen. At this time, you must be upset. Behind this scene, there is such a topic hidden: Is sending voice messages on WeChat a sign of low emotional intelligence?

Luo Yonghao once expressed a similar view at a press conference, saying that using WeChat to send voice messages is impolite and a sign of low emotional intelligence. Of course, he emphasized this view in order to better recommend the iFlytek voice input method. However, from some perspectives, this view is indeed worth discussing.

Existence is reasonable, and the WeChat team developed voice messaging, which naturally conforms to this universal theory. The original intention of the voice function was to make up for the low efficiency of Chinese input. You only need to pick up the phone and speak to it to transmit information. From this perspective, voice messaging does make it much more convenient for the sender.

Voice is also unique in that it can express and deepen feelings. For example, between relatives, lovers, and close friends, voice is a kind of comfort and warmth for them. And when it comes to expressing emotions, voice is more advantageous than text. For example, when expressing concern for parents and missing for lovers, the warmth of voice is something that text cannot have.

Voice messages can also show personal charm, of course, the premise is that your voice must be pleasant and the listener is not so disgusted, voice messages can naturally give you extra points. However, the disadvantages of voice messages are also obvious.

Although voice communication is convenient for senders, it brings a lot of trouble to receivers. For example, it takes 60 seconds to listen to a 60-second voice message, assuming you can hear and understand the other person's meaning. Some people have a local accent or their expressions are unclear, so you may have to play it several times to confirm the meaning.

It is also not convenient to listen to voice messages in many public places. For example, when you are in a company meeting and everyone is quietly listening to the leader's speech, you receive a voice message on WeChat at this time. Will you click on it?

In addition, the distance sensor of some smartphones is not so sensitive. If you click on the voice and then put the phone to your ear to listen, the voice may be played out loud. However, the content of the voice cannot be predicted, and playing it out loud directly will disturb others and expose privacy.

Another major drawback of voice messages is that the content cannot be displayed intuitively. You have to click to listen to know the content of the message. If you are in a WeChat group and everyone is sending voice messages, you don’t know whose content to listen to and what important content you have missed. If you click to listen one by one, you need to do it repeatedly, which makes people unhappy.

Another disadvantage of voice messages is that they are difficult to retrieve. If someone sends you a screenful of voice messages, you will be confused when you want to retrieve them to reinforce your impression. Because the voice messages are closely arranged, you cannot figure out which part of the message you need to re-listen to, and you have to listen to each part from the beginning. The key is that you cannot find this information later through WeChat search.

However, text messages are different. You can read a screen of content in just a few seconds no matter what the occasion is. Moreover, text messages can be copied, forwarded, and searched, which are all features that voice messages do not have. For the recipient of the message, reading text and listening to voice messages are completely different experiences.

Although text input is slow, it is highly efficient. For the same message, you take a long time to input text, but the other party understands it faster; while you take a short time to input voice, but the other party takes a long time to understand it. From this perspective, although you make things convenient for yourself, you waste the other party's time and even cause trouble to the other party. This is, to some extent, a selfish and impolite behavior.

Of course, this does not mean to completely deny voice messages. As long as it is the right time and you meet the right person, it is not a bad idea to send voice messages.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.