Who remembers the last verbal phone call you had? I am not counting those stupid solicitation calls or calling your parents to check in. I am talking about the last time you purposely picked up a phone to catch up with someone. My answer: last Friday. I was playing phone tag for a week with one of my closest friends from high school, and after six days of missing each other, we finally caught the other one.

Personally, I hate texting. Do I still do it, absolutely! Like most millennials, I rely on either texting, messaging apps, or social media to communicate. When my parents ask me why I chose to Snapchat a childhood friend instead of picking up the phone and calling her my response is, "It's just easier." That is not the answer, in truth, it is because millennials are obsessed with instant gratification, something achieved when you see your phone blow up with likes, retweets, texts, and Snapchats.

I think it is important to remind people that Snapchat is not actual communication. For God's sake, it disappears after you open a photo. You are sending something intangible, but you are left with a "streak" that makes you feel like your "conversations" had some worth to them. At least with texting, you can see the messages after they were sent.

When writing this article, I decided to call a group of high school and college friends to see their reaction to my phone call. Most of the responses when they initially picked up, "Charlotte, is everything all right?" Of course, everything is okay, I just wanted to call and catch up. Why do people assume there has to be something wrong to talk over the phone? A friend even said to me when I told her about what I was writing, "Yeah I assumed something was important, that's why I answered." Granted, I did have some amazing conversations, one which was over thirty minutes. Another problem, people rarely answer the phone. Millennials are connected to our cell phones practically 24/7, so why don't you pick up?

It was great to verbally talk to people. I learned so much about what was happening in their lives and how they were spending their summer. You cannot always tell what is going on through liking photos on social media, Snapchat, or even through texting. That childhood friend I mentioned, before we spoke I only knew she was done with a music entertainment management internship in California. Now, I know she was hired to work for a Super Pac and was considering transferring to a school out west. This is not information you casually text. It was so meaningful to talk to her and catch up; I could hear how she sounded and meanings were not lost which happens far too often over texts. Here's the thing, talking to her over the phone was not weird at all. She even said, "Char, if I expect a phone call from anyone it would be you, that's just the way you think and are."

She is right, I hate texting because so many things can be misconstrued. I could text someone a completely sarcastic message and the meaning would get lost. Although millennials are always by our phones, we are using them now more than ever as a bubble. If you don't want to talk to someone, you put headphones on and listen to music or look down at your cell phone and scroll through Instagram. Phones have the ability to connect us to thousands of people around the world, but we have actually become far more distant from them.

I encourage everyone to grow a pair and physically call someone. Don't text them, and if they don't answer, leave a message. You will be surprised how great it is to really catch up with someone.