I used to hate voice notes. When I wouldn't take someone's call - because I really didn't want to talk to that person - they'd send me a voice message anyway. So I still had to listen to them.

A friend recently explained to me how she uses voice notes, and it totally changed my perspective. Instead of quick messages, she records longer thoughts, kind of like writing letters.

When you record and send a voice note, you don't expect the other person to get back to you right away. You can record whenever you want and listen whenever you want. Complete autonomy for both sides.

For someone who values autonomy as much as I do, this seems like the perfect form of communication. You get to express yourself in detail while maintaining full control over when to engage. Something that wasn't really possible before.

It's like a modern version of being pen pals. Except now we're using our voices instead of pens.