Mark Cuban says he doesn’t call and prefers email because ‘if we did it over the phone, I’d forget half the stuff we talked about’

Like Gen Zers, billionaire Mark Cuban isn’t a fan of phone calls.

“No, I won’t call,” said the former Shark Tank Star and Dallas Mavericks owner in TikTok video posted by Masterclass. “You know, I’ll engage with you via email, and believe me, I do it all the time. I’m really good at it.”

But the Cubans’ rationale for their fervor to e-mail on the phone is very different from that of younger generations. He said that communicating over email gives him more time to craft a thoughtful response.

“I’ll give you a more comprehensive response than over the phone,” said Cuban, who is worth an estimated $6 billion. “And if we do it over the phone, I’ll forget half the stuff we talked about because I’ve got so much going on.”

While Cuban is no longer starred Shark Tank And after selling his majority stake in Mavericks, he still owns much of Mark Cuban’s Cost Plus drug company, and has invested his time on his show as an investor and consultant to dozens of companies.

Meanwhile, Gen Xers prefer email or text because they’re nervous about talking on the phone. A 2024 study shows that nearly a quarter of the generation is so reluctant to talk on the phone that they never answer a call. Last year a UK college launched a class aimed at helping Gen Z overcome their fears.

While it’s always been easy to poke fun at the younger generation for the idiosyncrasies of their professional lives, the hesitation for some is actually a deep-rooted fear called “telephobia.” According to Verywell Mind, this form of phone anxiety can lead to increased heart rate, nausea, shaking, and trouble concentrating.

“It speaks to a widespread fatigue with urgency and urgency, where people are tired of the hassle culture and obsession with efficiency,” Zoya Tarasova, an anthropologist at consumer insights agency Canvas8, previously said. fate. “People are quietly rebelling against this urgency by taking their time to respond to those calls.”

Other business leaders also said fate This telephobia trend is hurting their bottom line. Casey Halloran, CEO and co-founder of online travel agency Namu Travel, said in the 25 years he’s been in the business, management has “never seen such a generational divide” between older and younger travel agents in the way they make phone calls. He also said that combating telephobia has been a “frequent, uncomfortable topic” at his company, as management has recognized that his younger travel agents log 50% fewer calls than older employees.

“As a solution, we’ve implemented extensive training, incentives, call observations with our experienced representatives, and even hired a business psychologist,” Halloran previously said. fate. “After more than two years of this struggle, we’re almost at the point of throwing up our hands and continuing to fight the uphill battle by embracing SMS and webchat.”

Still, for his business purposes, Cuban says he prefers emails to phone calls because he can go back and refer to what he said.

“If we do it by email, I can always look it up,” he added.

What research tells us about communication styles at work

As with most business approaches, there are pros and cons to emailing instead of talking on the phone.

Research by recruiting firm Robert Walters shows that more than half of young-generation professionals find instant messaging or email, rather than a call or meeting, to be the best way to “get things done,” showing how they believe talking on the phone can be inefficient. That’s the “it could be an email” mentality.

“Younger generations are less inclined to spend hours in a restaurant or cafe when they can have a quick discussion online,” Emily Vignon, associate director of Robert Walters California, wrote in the 2024 study. To be sure, Vignon said there are also “downsides” to communicating only via email or text.

“Face-to-face interactions allow for meaningful connections and provide opportunities for non-verbal communication cues, building trust and rapport with customers and colleagues,” added Vignon. “Subtleties in body language, facial expressions, and tone of voice contribute to a deeper understanding and connection that often cannot be fully conveyed through text or video chats.”

To be sure, other research from the University of Texas at Austin (UT) and the University of Chicago, as well as McKinsey & Co. , show calls can help resolve issues faster than email, especially since workers spend nearly a third of their time on email. DePaul University researcher David J. Bouvier’s 2022 study also shows that email facilitates information sharing and can reduce stress.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com