The Return of the Phone Call (Yes, Really)
A small revival, almost entirely among people under thirty-five.
By The Editors · Mar 26, 2026 · 3 min read
We have written, in this column, about the slow rearrangement of how people stay in touch with one another, and the phone call — the actual, voice-to-voice phone call — is, to our considerable surprise, part of that rearrangement.
The numbers are small and the data is mostly anecdotal, but the pattern, in conversations we have had this spring, is consistent. People in their twenties and early thirties, who grew up assuming the phone call was a thing their parents did, are scheduling them with friends. Often weekly. Often at a set time. Often, notably, while walking.
The explanation is the same one that keeps coming up in every conversation we have about communication right now: the format is the only one that demands your full attention, and the friendship is the only thing that benefits from it. Texts, the argument goes, are for logistics. Calls are for the friendship itself.
