I think you make a good and interesting point. However, in my opinion, there is no zero sum game when it comes to this topic. Some situations are better handled just by email while some need to be handled by a phone call if face to face is not possible.
Example, if I just need to confirm a Yes or No to someone, email is good. Why waste time getting on the phone, making conversation just because it will be rude to just sticking to the point etc. However, if I have to negotiate something or agree/decide on something, better do phone call if face to face not possible. Email is the last thing u want unless u like to see your inbox flooded with back and forth agreements/disagreements/whatifs/buts.
> Email is the last thing u want unless u like to see your inbox flooded with back and forth agreements/disagreements/whatifs/buts.
This is not the problem with emails; it's the problem with people. Back in the nineties I had internet access just in the mornings and my friend, with whom I was working on some project, only in evenings. We each sent one letter (email) a day, yet we had great conversations and were able to decide things.
How was that possible? We just put time and effort into each and every one email. Reading and replying to an email was an hour or two long activity - every point we wanted to make we first thought through and frequently we included possible counterarguments along with what we first wanted to say. We were actively helping each other with understanding and thinking, because if something was misunderstood or too hard to understand (relatively) quickly we just wasted entire day or more.
You don't have to mail back and forth each other so many times. You just need to think about what you read and about what you write. And trust the other person(s) to do the same.
And this is where your supposition falls apart in my real world. In all of my encounters by email, people do not spend the time to answer all of your questions in great detail. Most of the time, they will answer one question, and then with only superficial detail. This is what leads to the "one question per email rule" [1], and hours of back and forth which could be resolved with a single phone call lasting only a few minutes.
I think in my time in corporations, I've run into one person capable of maintaining high quality emails where we didn't have to use calls - one out of hundreds. It's the main reason I've had to develop my own interpersonal skills.
I'm always open to the possibility that the problem was on my end, but when I receive one sentence answers routinely from people by email, I don't really think it is.
> And this is where your supposition falls apart in my real world.
I know this. And I suffer from this. It seems like the problem is not with you at all - it's what I wrote many times already: people generally loose ability to read and write.
These days I exchange emails with very few people - probably four, maybe the fifth one appears sometimes. I had a possibility to place myself in such a position that all of them I chose myself. They are all capable of good written communication. It took me many years and hundreds, if not thousands, of tries to do that.
The fact that fewer and fewer people are able to write coherently and understand what they read is maddeningly sad. I can't do anything about it. I can only distance myself from it, as far as my current position allows. I can't do this to an extent that the OP can and I have very different reasons, but I do my best.
Example, if I just need to confirm a Yes or No to someone, email is good. Why waste time getting on the phone, making conversation just because it will be rude to just sticking to the point etc. However, if I have to negotiate something or agree/decide on something, better do phone call if face to face not possible. Email is the last thing u want unless u like to see your inbox flooded with back and forth agreements/disagreements/whatifs/buts.