To my horror, gen X is turning to voice notes – I don’t want to hear your mini-podcast | Emma Brockes

They appear on your phone uninvited, overlong and often three at time. This isn't a message. It's a one-woman show

There is a joke in the first season of the HBO show Hacks, pitched by Hannah Einbinder's gen Z character, Ava, to her boomer employer, Deborah Vance: I had a horrible nightmare that I got a voicemail," she says. Ha - gen Z hates voicemail; boomers don't understand jokes without punchlines. What?" shrieks Jean Smart's Vance. Ha - everyone's disgusting, and no single generation will give an inch to another.

Sorry to insert gen X into the mix, but in the context of this particular flashpoint, we need to talk about voice memos. (Or audio messages, or voice texts, not to be confused with voice-to-text, which is something else entirely - all right, Grandma?)

Emma Brockes is a Guardian columnist