Opinion: GOP hack forces Sony Pictures to go old school: Is that such a bad thing?

Will the Sony hack ultimately change the way we communicate?

The Guardian of Peace’s cyberattack in late November hasn’t just brought Sony Pictures to its knees. It’s forced the company to go old school, according to the Wrap’s Matt Donnelly. “In multiple conversations with reporters, industry executives say they find themselves in a terrifying position for a culture glued to smartphones: off the grid,” reports Donnelly. “At Sony, calls, fax machines, billing by hand and snail mail have become the new facts of life on the lot since last month’s data breach.”

And to think, just last week Op-Ed columnist Meghan Daum opined about the end of telephone culture, phone calls now falling into the category of “dread and annoyance.”

“Old-fashioned girl that I am,” Daum wrote, “I still have a landline, though it rarely rings -- and when it does, especially without warning, there’s rarely anything good on the other end. … Friends or business associates do call on occasion, but they almost always email or text ahead of time asking if it’s OK. I do the same for them. Anything else would be rude, literally alarming.”

Landlines keep you physically tethered. And phone calls take more time than electronic communication – or so it can seem. But on the flip side, the phone does nurture human connection.

In her “On the Lot” segment on KPCC’s “Take Two” on Monday, The Times’ Rebecca Keegan said she thought the Sony hack might change the way Hollywood does business. In fact, she noted, the shift was already happening, pre-hack.

“I do think that people are increasingly aware that nothing you send in an email or a text is totally 100% safe,” she said. If that forces people to talk to each other on the phone instead, that’s OK.

“That would actually be kind of lovely. I miss people who give good phone.”

Follow Alexandra Le Tellier on Twitter @alexletellier