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I hate telephones

jameshfisher.com

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Re: I hate telephones

#391

Post by Flozzin »

ecshafer wrote: post #270
iiv wrote: post #245

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

My impression of the article is that the person has some semi serious mental health issues. Their anxiety is getting in the way of their life. But they are spinning it as something wrong with the system.

I had the same thought. There is no reason a phone should cause you this much anxiety. He was powerless to act. He could have done a number of things, but instead he walked towards the tormentor and took it in full force. This is not the behavior of a healthy person.

Re: I hate telephones

#392

Post by SerLava »

jessriedel wrote: post #276
SerLava wrote: post #261

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's better but it's still kind of imposing. We are not socially wired to be compatible with the technology to magically steal people's attention from space.

If you don't want to be bothered, just turn off your ringer and notifications. Don't try to invent non-existent social norms. Part of the reason I have a phone is so people can reach me.

Personally I like to be available for emergencies but would prefer routine information exchange to be handled via text.

Re: I hate telephones

#393

Post by astura »

brightsize wrote: post #70
hnarn wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

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…

I charge my phone using my car's battery when the power is out.

Re: I hate telephones

#394

Post by SerLava »

djhworld wrote: post #354
nicky0 wrote: post #338

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

I think it depends when you were born. In the 70s/80s/90s it was very common to get phone calls (on landline phones) at all times of the day from family members or friends. I remember being on the phone to friends from school for hours in the evening, I don't even recall the subject matter of the conversations but it's just what you did. Then as more and more people got on the internet, using other communication medi…

I agree- I didn't mind getting calls when it was the only way to communicate long distance. It was still inconvenient but better than nothing.

Re: I hate telephones

#395

Post by Tharkun »

monk_e_boy wrote: post #248
kyberias wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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, n…

Have you done/read any studies on people's telephone behaviour? No? Then how can you speculate about what does and doesn't fall within 2 standard deviations of the mean?

Re: I hate telephones

#396

Post by astura »

jimmaswell wrote: post #178
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.

It's necessary if your house has poor cellular reception.

Unless you use wifi calling.

Re: I hate telephones

#397

Post by dragonwriter »

daveFNbuck wrote: post #334
dragonwriter wrote: post #326

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

“block unknown callers” in the call blocking settings.

Re: I hate telephones

#398

Post by astura »

microcolonel wrote: post #214
pfarnsworth wrote: post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The same reason why sometimes meetings are actually important and faster to come to a decisions than email or chat. When you have all the stakeholders in front of each other, either physically or virtually, information is disseminated and decisions come together much quicker.

Indeed, the mythical "good meeting". I swear I've seen it firsthand, but nobody believes me.

The only times we've ever had meetings at work they've been good ones! We only have a few a year.

Re: I hate telephones

#399

Post by ZenoArrow »

kibwen wrote: post #37

I receive about 20 spam calls per day. In contrast, I receive about 0.2 legitimate calls per day. Google itself suspects that these are spam calls, because it pops up a bright red "SUSPECTED SPAM CALLER" warning when the phone begins ringing. And yet, I have found no option to have the phone automatically decline the call. There's not even an option to silence the ringer for any call not from my contacts; I actually…

> "Why is it so hard to configure my phone to only allow my friends to interrupt me at any moment of the day, rather than any rando?"

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.vladlee.bl...

Also, some Android phones seem to allow you to block calls from unknown numbers:

https://community.ee.co.uk/t5/4G-and-mobile-data/How-to-bloc...

Re: I hate telephones

#400

Post by dragonwriter »

kibwen wrote: post #37

I receive about 20 spam calls per day. In contrast, I receive about 0.2 legitimate calls per day. Google itself suspects that these are spam calls, because it pops up a bright red "SUSPECTED SPAM CALLER" warning when the phone begins ringing. And yet, I have found no option to have the phone automatically decline the call. There's not even an option to silence the ringer for any call not from my contacts; I actually…

> There's not even an option to silence the ringer for any call not from my contacts;

It's called Do Not Disturb, with Allow Exceptions, Calls from My Contacts Only. Android has it, and iOS does to (I think the options are even similarly named.)

> Why is it so hard to configure my phone to only allow my friends to interrupt me at any moment of the day, rather than any rando?

It's not that hard. EDIT: or maybe it is, because phones are complex devices with opaque UIs with poor discoverability. But the information is out there.

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