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I hate telephones

jameshfisher.com

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Re: I hate telephones

#331

Post by tomjen3 »

yoodenvranx wrote: post #133

> If I were rich, I would have a permanent secretary. If I ever play and win the lottery this is the one thing I would spent big money on. No expensive cars, no expensive wine, just a person which takes care of everything. Need a new insurance for the car? Tell the secretary to do it. Car is broken? Tell the secretary to take care of it. Need a hotel? Tell the personal secretary to book one. Phone broken? Just send a…

A secretary hired in the us is expensive. A virtual personal assistant in India (which is the same thing, except you never meet in person) is not.

Re: I hate telephones

#332

Post by nicky0 »

wildrhythms wrote: post #291
simonbarker87 wrote: post #181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just don’t answer, or, better yet, stick your phone on silent or do not disturb when you are busy. you’re projecting that emotion on to the caller, I see an incoming call as an indication that someone would like to speak to me, it a demand for attention. If I can’t take the call I won’t answer and will call them back (or email to arrange a more suitable time) when I can.

Why not do this first every time? > email to arrange a more suitable time Or better yet, provide the important details over email and then if there is some unimaginable reason why an audio medium is still required to convey information (identify a bird call? place a long distance call with a whistle?) then contact over the phone.

Good luck convincing the entire world to do this.

Seeing phone to silent is a lot easier than expecting the world not to call you and getting annoyed when they do.

Re: I hate telephones

#333

Post by nicky0 »

hnarn wrote: post #10
ghaff wrote: post #7

I'm about to ditch my landline and one of the main reasons (in addition to not using it much) is that legitimate calls are far outnumbered by junk calls. I don't answer numbers I don't recognize but it's still a distraction. There seems to be some principle in play where the misuse of a communications channel rises to the point where it's annoying but not quite unusable. If I got 20 junk calls a day, I'd have to turn…

Out of curiousity, when were you born? I was born in the 80's, and among my friends literally noone has a landline, not even the older ones. There's simply no argument for it. I'm in northern Europe by the way.

In the UK landlines come bundled with home internet so it is common to still have one. But many just don't plug in the phone.

Re: I hate telephones

#334

Post by daveFNbuck »

dragonwriter wrote: post #326
Zarel wrote: post #324

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can't add "Private Number" as a contact, nor can you block it.

Even pre-smartphone landline systems could block (or route direct to VM) numbers with blocked caller ID. You absolutely can block such numbers in the stock Android phone app; some online sources indicate iOS lacks this basic feature, but I don't know if they are accurate and current.

How do you block calls from numbers with blocked caller ID in the stock Android phone app? I can't find that option.

Re: I hate telephones

#335

Post by nicky0 »

Feniks wrote: post #114
brightsize wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There IS an argument for it. Around a year ago we had a freak windstorm here. It was an amazing experience - took down trees and tore apart roofs all over. I'd never seen houses crushed by trees before. The power was out for days in some places, including mine. My phone battery died after a day, ditto the laptop's battery. My landline continued to function throughout. As I recall the service was also extremely inexpe…

Natural disasters that cut off power for more than a few hours are unlikely in Northern Europe. Cell towers have their own emergency power supply to deal with the once in a decade brown out. If the power is off for days it means the Apocalypse or WW3 has happened.

Just out of curiosity how do you define Northern Europe? It's a term I'm seeing more lately but I don't know what it really means.

Re: I hate telephones

#336

Post by nicky0 »

Trav5 wrote: post #211
mikestew wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Born in the 60s, old enough to be your parent: no landline at our house in I don’t know how many years. We both have a phone that’s nearby all of the time, what would we do with a landline except as a spam vector? And my parents, who are old enough to be your grandparents? Ditched the landline a couple of years ago. I have no idea what the demographics look like for hardlines anymore.

True, not that it matters, but my parents and my in laws have a decade or two on you... One lives in an area with poor cell service (surrounded by good service). My Dad doesn't carry, and when he does it's a feature phone that is off. Ha. Of the residents I know for sure do or don't have a land line, they are the only ones.

I like your dad :)

Re: I hate telephones

#337

Post by [deleted] »

mrmondo wrote: post #151

Not alone here, I have my work phone unplugged or permanently on do not disturb (straight to voicemail which gets converted into text in an email), likewise on my cell phone I reject almost all calls and an automatic reply via text saying “I’m sorry, I’m not able to take your call or you’re calling for an unknown number, please email or iMessage me instead”, if the number calling is a land line my carrier converts th…

[deleted]

Re: I hate telephones

#338

Post by nicky0 »

jessriedel wrote: post #257
SerLava wrote: post #251

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> “Why don’t you just call them, and get it all figured out right now?” Because it's rude. It has always been rude, but now with the phone in your pocket it's that much worse. She doesn't know what her friend isn't doing at the moment, and shouldn't impose. The featured article gives a better impression of this than I can... but I'll add that the tragedy of the commons is a factor. You can't just show up from outer s…

Even if you subscribed to this bizarre principle that it's rude to call someone unannounced, you could always just ask by text.

I find the principle that it's OK to call people at any time very bizarre.

Re: I hate telephones

#339

Post by code_duck »

I don't like to answer unexpected calls from anyone. It was different when the phone was the only instant communication medium... one hd more time to prepare for the content of a given call.

Now, it is always a distraction... my girlfriend frequently calls without warning in the middle of a text conversation, and i often don't answer because i'm not ready. It takes a far greater level of attention and commitment to talk on the phone than to participate in a text based conversation.

Re: I hate telephones

#340

Post by csydas »

emodendroket wrote: post #313
figurehe4d wrote: post #173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

> 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! Anybody legitimate that's not true. But it's so easy to spoof your number that there are a lot of bad actors.

Are you talking about internal Do Not Call lists or the actual Federal Do Not Call list? Because I used to have that issue with credit card companies, random loan spammers, and such with both mail and phone call spam. I signed up for the list with a 100% opt-out option and just like it promised, within 3 months, the offers stopped coming in.

That being said, I also try to be pretty careful about putting my phone number out there, taking time to judge when a real phone number is needed or not, and asking pretty specifically for what reason a company wants my phone number and often just ignoring the service if an adequate reason isn't given.

Since I've moved abroad, I have apparently been less careful and I occasionally get calls and texts on my foreign sim, and I must have given my email out as there are suddenly lots of hot-singles looking for me, but it is 100% related to my current region, whereas before my Spam folder sat untouched.

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