Technology can be a useful tool for enabling avoidance.

Don’t want to go to Bible study? Just send a text message - “Can’t come tonight. Sorry.”

Got something hard to say? Send an email. “Sermon on Sunday was terrible. I’ll be praying for you.”

Can’t be bothered to call someone to wish them a happy birthday? Post on their Facebook wall instead! (Too harsh?!)

Upset with someone at church? Listen to a podcast instead and therefore avoid the need to go to church and resolve your issues with them.

Slydial is another tool to facilitate avoidance. It allows you to speak directly to a person’s voicemail - i.e. you don’t need to worry about whether or not they will pick up and you’d have to speak to them. Jump straight to leaving a message instead.

Here’s the example promoted on its website:

“You go to a week long convention for work in Las Vegas and blow $5,000 the first night at the roulette table. You need to call your wife and tell her why she should hold off on making the monthly mortgage payment. Her voicemail will be much more understanding than she will.”

I’ll be honest. There are times when I’ve been very relieved that a call has gone through to voicemail and I’ve been able to simply leave a message. But that’s because I was cowardly (and still am).

But it’s difficult to see how Slydial is a tool that will help faciliate authentic, honest, loving relationships. Yet these are precisely the relationships that we all long for.

(Thanks to @nttd for the heads up on Slydial)