On Transaction Costs

One of the biggest topics that stuck out in this chapter was that of transaction costs.  Reading those couple paragraphs I thought, “Oh my God, this is me. I’m the asshole who doesn’t want to talk to anyone for excessive amounts of time.”  Then I sat back and thought a little more.  I had just had a phone conversation with my best friend last night.  Something had happened earlier in my day that was too exciting to convey in a text message, so I called her.  What would have otherwise been a three-message-text conversation between us turned into a twenty minute long phone call; my exciting news was done being talked about within the first five minutes. 

What kept us on the phone so long was that we both weren’t comfortable hanging up without asking about certain parts of each other’s lives: “Did work go well tonight?“… “Are you feeling any better from yesterday?”…“Oh my gosh, I forgot to ask you about your dog!” “How was your family cookout this past weekend?” Just little things that we could have discussed in text messages, but those messages would have been sporadic throughout the week. 

Finally hanging up was a minute long process in itself.  A lot of sighing, a lot of “okaaaaay”s and “weeeeell”s, just verbal cues that give a feel that we were done talking, but allowing enough pauses to ask or talk about last minute things.  I feel like goodbyes are so awkward nowadays on the phone regardless of whom I’m talking to.  Funny thing is, her and I were texting as soon as we got off the phone to say goodnight.  I’m laughing at this right now.  Seriously, I sound so pathetic; actually “shallow” is probably a better word. 

At the same time, my boyfriend and I barely talk on the phone unless it’s something that needs to be discussed ASAP.  He gets busy, and I get busy, so when we text sometimes we don’t reply for a while.  Phone calls get the job done: “Hey babe, what do you want for dinner?”… “Let’s just do tacos.  I took the meat out of the freezer this morning to thaw.” …“Awesome, I’ll have it ready for when you get home, I love you.”  “I love you too, bye.” 

And that’s that! A text message would have been ignored for however long, and the question of dinner would still be an ongoing issue—if you want to even call it an issue—probably until we were both hungry and just getting home together.  Texting for us gives us little things to look forward to in the day.  I’ll send him one in the morning, he’ll reply around lunchtime, I’ll send another one after a class, and he’ll get back to me after he’s out of work.

The way communication has evolved is definitely a lot to let sink in when I actually sit down to think about it and compare my own means of communication to how it used to be.  Before texting or even cell phones at that matter, I would have had to call my best friend’s home phone to get a hold of her or wait for her to get online on AIM, or my boyfriend and I would have had to either guess what the other wanted to eat or somehow got a hold of each other on a work phone or a maybe even a beeper (that’s what they were called right?) Everything really is changing, but I also agree with the book that it makes those “richer” means of communicating that much more special.  Sure, my best friend and I have less to talk about during the week now, but it was nice catching up in a phone call for once and hearing her vocally laugh instead of an “LOL.”  And the little notes that my boyfriend and I leave for each other to find is a cuter way to let us know we love each other rather than just saying it in a text message.  I guess it all comes down to how we really use everything that’s provided for us in this technological age along with the “outdated” ways of communication that really aren’t that bad once you remember how big a part of your life they used to be.