• For several years, it has been possible to send voice notes on by message, on WhatsApp, Instagram or Messenger.
  • Faster, livelier, clearer... Voice messages have become a means of daily communication.
  • But this feature is divisive. While some like the convenience of voice messages, others are close to the anxiety attack at the idea of listening to a monologue lasting several minutes.

"Make me a vocal to tell me about your evening yesterday", "it's a long time to explain, I'll make you a vocal", "you're not going to believe what happened to me, I'll summarize you in voice"... Well, we could go on for a long time, but we'll stop there, you probably got the idea. Upon receipt of these messages, a strange feeling invades us: if we can't wait for Claire to tell us about her Thursday evening - and there are things to say - we already have some cold sweats at the idea of listening to this vocal of 4 minutes 17, punctuated by silence, "euuuuuh", "I resume", "I lost my way", "Well, you figured out what."

And that's the ambivalence of voice messages: we love them as much as we hate them. Because if this feature, appeared in 2013 on WhatsApp and in 2018 on Instagram, irritates the whole world (no exaggeration, promise), it has spread like wildfire in our exchanges. But what the hell, why does Claire send a voice message as long as her arm rather than writing a text message or just calling?

Halfway between SMS and call

First, we're not going to lie, it's still very practical. A simple thumb placed on the microphone logo of your smartphone keyboard, and hop, here you are unfolding your life, like a podcast of France Culture (which we love). Because the voice message is a bit of a hybrid solution halfway between SMS and phone call. "When you call someone, if that person doesn't pick up, you leave a voice message on their answering machine. The voice note is somewhere in between," explains Alexandre Eyries, HDR lecturer in information and communication science at the University of Lorraine. "It allows you to have an exchange without being in direct interaction," adds the specialist.

I talk to a girl she makes vocals of 50 seconds I want to break everything

— Losato☄️🧡 (@losatoTV) March 7, 2023

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Especially since, unlike SMS, for Claire, making an audio is a bit like making us live her evening, as if we were there, like "one women show": there is the tone, laughter or emotions that can hardly be transmitted in writing, despite the multitude of emojis that exist. And if her vocals are clear as spring water, it's probably because Claire (got it?) may have taken it several times to record it, one of the advantages of this feature.

Not because his finger slipped, stopping the recording (top 10 most annoying things in the world), but because a voice can eliminate any doubt of the famous passive-aggressive that can be had with a written message: "An SMS, it can lead to misunderstandings, even misunderstandings. With the voice note, there is a more lively, even intimate, side of an almost physical proximity, it gives the impression of a conversation that is not really one, "says the researcher.

A certain freedom for the receiver

By recording her story of 4 minutes 17, Claire also allowed us not to bleed our eyes when reading her spelling and sometimes dubious syntax (we all have a Claire in our lives, do not lie). But Pierre, one of our readers, disagrees: "I really hate voicemails. For me it is a sign that the person does not master spelling, syntax and grammar and that he is lazy to make efforts. Encouraging this practice contributes to the general lowering of French, people were already no longer making efforts with automatic correctors, but with vocals, they do not even pretend anymore, "laments the 24-year-old.

But without the invention of the voice note, Claire would have had two choices: write an SMS probably as long as the text of the pension reform or give us a phone call that will force us to ask an RTT. But the call can be considered as an intrusive process, an injunction to answer: "It is sometimes difficult to end a telephone conversation, it can drag on, it can be embarrassing to cut it short," says Alexandre Eyries.

My mother she let me vocals of 15 minutes ?? Call me it will go + fast mdr

— v_wnv (@leavanaaa) February 28, 2023

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Fortunately, we can thank Silicon Valley for inventing voice. Because, absolutely nothing compels you to listen to Claire's monologue now (apart from your sense of friendship, but that's your choice), let alone answer her in the process. "There is an asynchronous side, that is to say a temporality shifted between the moment when the voice is emitted and the time when it is consulted and responded," analyzes the teacher-researcher. "The sender gives the receiver some freedom. There is a form of rationalization of social time, we let the person choose his temporality, "he adds.

Narcissism and egocentrism

Now let's be honest for a few minutes. Of Claire's 4 minutes and 17 minutes of recording, how many really concentrate useful information? It is on this point that the anti and pro-voice messages are torn (always without any exaggeration, it is not our style). As we told you in the preamble, audio authors have the unfortunate tendency to get carried away in an endless monologue, punctuated by digressions, silences and endless "euuuuuuuh". "The voice message actually has a very annoying side, it is often very long to say little. It feels like wasting time where an SMS could have been faster and more concise. We block time to his interlocutor, "admits Alexandre Eyries.

I have 5 whatsapp conversation with vla the vocals to listen to puree I do not have the strength to open them, I think I will just cut the bridges with these people it is simpler

— wonrin (@wonrin75) September 5, 2022

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Especially since listening to a voice note still requires putting yourself in certain dispositions: "You have to find calm to listen to it, to concentrate. The worst thing is that most often, we are forced to go through a concentration of useless information to access information," said Zinedine, 28. By sending us her monologue, is Claire really in sharing? Not so sure. "There is a little egocentric, even narcissistic, side to leaving a voice message. I take advantage of the audios to tell you about my life, but I do not let you tell me yours. It is a selfish pleasure, because it is the assurance of not being interrupted, "considers the teacher-researcher. An opinion shared by Paul, 24: "A voice message is clearly selfish, it is comfortable for the one who sends it but quite the opposite for the receiver".

In other words, voice messages are a bit like the photos of a holiday in Seychelles that your aunt Suzanne sent on the WhatsApp family group. You did not ask for anything, you did not particularly want to see them, but you receive them anyway and you will answer them out of politeness, at the risk of putting a chill on the next Christmas meal.

I thank day and night the person who had the idea to speed up the vocals

— poppy (@elissoo_) September 4, 2022

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We'll take a risk and maybe make enemies, but at 20 Minutes, we like truths, even if they hurt: no, no one wants to hear you record or listen to a voice message in the subway early in the morning, or in the doctor's waiting room. Yes, you could have summed up that two-minute voicemail in one sentence. And no, a voice note of more than 30 seconds is not socially accepted.

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