For months I've struggled with a blog idea entitled "Saying Goodbye to Voicemail." I garnered the concept in August of 2022 after a friend told me he had tried to leave a message on my voicemail, but it had reached the phone's capacity. So I asked him why he hadn't called me back later, and he said he figured I'd see his name in my contact screen and return the call. I never did.

Little did he know how inept I am at technology; therefore, he wasn't in my contact folder either. I decided then and there to change my voicemail to "I'm not available; please call me back," and be done with the telephone tag process by having an automated way to put the ball back in their court.

I wanted to write a blog about it at that time; however, due to the short message involved, i.e., change your voice mail content and eliminate one level of nuisance technology. There wasn't more I could offer. I toyed with talking about the increased efficiency and productivity of not having to check voicemail, the benefits of which seemed so apparent as to render the paragraph elementary.

With the advent of ChatGPT, I have been testing the creation of outlines for my trip reports in a form similar to William Wordsworth's poem of his visit to Tintern Abbey, which resonates more with the experience than with activity.

The two got crossed, and ChatGPT gave me an ode to saying goodbye to voicemail in a form similar to William Wordsworth, which probably says more than I ever could on the subject.

Oh Voicemail, once so cherished,
Your absence now we celebrate.
No longer shall we feel so harried,
As we strive to stay up to date.
No more checking in-between,
Those long and tedious messages.
The time we save, oh what a dream,
No longer trapped in voicemail cages.
Oh, the frustration we once knew,
When trying to retrieve a call.
But now we bid farewell to you,
And your outdated protocol.
With texting, messaging, and chat,
We've found a better way to stay.
We'll never again be trapped,
In voicemail's tiresome fray.
So let us rejoice, and say goodbye,
To a technology that's had its time.
We'll move on, with a satisfied sigh,
And leave voicemail far behind. (1)

There may be a place for ChatGPT in my blog writing yet, albeit sparingly.

Written February 20, 2023

Footnotes:

ChatGPT. "Provide an outline of The Benefits of Saying Goodbye to Voicemail in the form of an ode inspired by William Wordsworth's 'Lines Composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey.'" OpenAI ChatGPT.