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I hate telephones

jameshfisher.com

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Re: I hate telephones

#241

Post by u801e »

figurehe4d wrote: post #173
izacus wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

20 spam calls per day? That sounds like torture... is there really no body in USA that would prevent that from happening? (I've never received a spam call on my now 20 year old phone number.)

Unfortunately it doesn't work that way, the ones that DO give you the option to be 'do not call' will forward your number to other spammers, actually increasing the spam calls you get. Do not ask them to put you on the d-n-c list! Here's what does work (in my experience): answer the call, but say nothing, heck, mute your phone mic if you have to. Just give them silence. I'm not sure if there's some 'person on the oth…

> Here's what does work (in my experience): answer the call, but say nothing, heck, mute your phone mic if you have to. Just give them silence.

I don't get that many spam calls, but what I do when I get one varies from answering and immediately hanging up to doing what you suggested (which usually results in them disconnecting after about 5 seconds). Occasionally, I've done things like answering the call and snapping my fingers in the receiver instead of saying "hello" and that usually results in an immediate disconnect.

I'm not sure if any of those things have affected the volume of spam calls I receive though.

Re: I hate telephones

#242

Post by pasquinelli »

xefer wrote: post #182

My changed relationship with the telephone became weirdly apparent when I watched the original WarGames movie recently. There's a scene where David (Matthew Broderick) is alone with McKittrick (Dabney Coleman) in his office being interrogated separated by an office desk. While they're sitting there the telephone on McKittrick's desk starts ringing, which he silently ignores keeping his eyes glued on David, who grows…

part of the difference is now a phone belongs to a person, whereas then it belonged to a house, or in the case of the scene you're talking about, an office. i can keep track of who matters and when to expect a call if all i have to think about is myself, but even with just a couple people living with me i can't just ignore a phone call. i don't know if one of the people i live with is expecting a call. and with phones tied to places instead of people, you get calls like, "have you heard from so and so?", or "is my kid at your place?", which would be really shitty for me to just ignore.

Re: I hate telephones

#243

Post by DanBC »

Singletoned wrote: post #82
throw401 wrote: post #34

I hate telephones too, and I DON'T have an anxiety disorder please!!! I'm just not the guy always ready for a call. I rarely pick up the phone or open the door for a unknown call, and yes it can create stress. Quite often I am very focussed and balanced, one call can ruin that state. If you cannot find yourself in this, please don't create a disease out of it.

I used to hate them to a phobic degree, now I just hate them. I really dislike how much people are dismissing this. If I hated spiders, people wouldn't say "Oh you're just covering up an anxiety disorder".

Hang on - people aren't dismissing this as trivial; they're saying it's a common phobia (which is a form of anxiety disorder) and that there's good news: phobia is very treatable with a short course of therapy. That's freely available in England with short wait times.

Re: I hate telephones

#244

Post by pfranz »

wruza wrote: post #218

I noticed that people of my age (30+) who don’t take unknown calls usually feel inner insecurities that influence (or cause) their unhappy lives. It may be debt, unmet responsibilities, fear of being abused, etc. I can remember the time when landlines were new and everyone was excited to take a call and to speak to someone who’s not even around. The story also reminds me an old joke/anecdote. English gentlemen club,…

I think what landlines were used for when they were first rolled out are very different from what cellphones are used for today. Snail mail, for me today is almost exclusively junk mail. I still have occasional formal notices from my bank or companies I do business with and a few times a year a seasonal card from family. I bet my attitude towards mail differs from people's attitudes 50 years ago. I think the same goes for telephone calls.

Re: I hate telephones

#245

Post by iiv »

xg15 wrote: post #200

> I hate telephones. > The problem is the medium. The problem is synchronous communication. The problem is the telephone. I hate telephones. > I’m told that, in 1993, 2.5 million people in the UK had “telephone phobia”. That’s over 4%, similar to rates of arachnophobia. This is not unusual, and I’d bet rates are higher now. Everyone hates telephones. > ... Asynchronous textual communication is how everyone communicat…

I agree with the sentiment of his article, but I also agree with you. The article is written in a condescending and arrogant way.

Re: I hate telephones

#246

Post by walshemj »

Anyone exhibiting Mr Fishers phobia needs to consider seeing a therapist - Its going to cause them major problems at work and socially.

I have noticed a reluctance to use the goddammed phone as intended - rather than call me to discus something important and time sensitive people will just add a task to base camp in a some what passive aggressive way

Re: I hate telephones

#248

Post by monk_e_boy »

kyberias wrote: post #87
monk_e_boy wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He spent the best part of a day compiling a spreadsheet of possible answers to a conversation, the wrote a lengthy blog post telling us about it. That is not normal.

Quit categorizing people into normal and not normal. It's not normal.

Sure it's normal for people to make an assessment on other people. Some of those people fall outside the bell curve.

The middle of the bell curve for a particular trait (e.g. talking on the telephone) is normal - so about 90% of the population.

You want to redefine the word normal. OK, sure. What should I use? Different? Strange? Unique? Flower? Snowflake? I don't know. Sounds pretty odd behaviour to me. Not wrong, not bad, not dirty. Just weird. Odd. Not normal.

Re: I hate telephones

#249

Post by walshemj »

_nalply wrote: post #23

Me, too. I don't hear, so I don't phone. However some business is almost impossible to conduct without phoning. AWS requires identification by phone. Customs tried to call me to ask me something about my bike I sent home from a holiday abroad. Credit cards are only unblocked by a phone call. And so on. (And phone relays are only a partial solution because some commpanies deem them insecure - I have currently a credit…

I don't think Mr Fisher is hearing impaired though donot AWS and other US institutions offer typetalk or text relay services.

Re: I hate telephones

#250

Post by gonehome »

martian wrote: post #228
gonehome wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I tried this on iOS and it doesn’t work well because it turns off all other notifications. While calls do get through from your contacts, you don’t get notifications for anything. I really just want a contacts whitelist, but since that isn’t an option I use nomorobo which is a subscription service that works really well to block spam calls for $2/month. It’s an iOS app, focuses on not uploading your stuff to their se…

Just use the Do Not Disturb feature on iOS

I’m saying that it doesn’t work well because Do Not Disturb blocks all notifications.
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