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The first minute of every phone call is torture now

theatlantic.com

11–20 of 450 posts

Re: The first minute of every phone call is torture now

#12
Because phones aren't allowed to have bezels anymore for some reason, I'm constantly hanging up on people because there's no room for a proximity sensor to turn off the screen so my cheek presses the "hang up" button. It tries to use the front camera as a makeshift sensor, but it doesn't work very well.

Recently I reacted with incredulity when the people on the other end could properly hear me through a newly-connected Bluetooth device -- it's more jarring to me when this stuff doesn't fail.

Re: The first minute of every phone call is torture now

#14
Often it’s the wireless earbuds, which won’t reconnect or are connected to the wrong device.

More often the fact that no matter how much a reviewer praised your earbuds' call quality, it's total shite and the person on the other end of the line will ask if you're in a car or using speakerphone.

Re: The first minute of every phone call is torture now

#15

I cannot read the article due to the paywall, but just to vent.....one painful phone pet peeve for me that's declined recently is the art of people leaving a useful voice mail. Ok, I get it. There's a few technically-challenged people that struggle with emails and texts and prefer to use their voice. I'm perfectly happy to deal with that. But they call and leave a voice mail that focuses on the wrong information. The…

Voicemail is essentially "Here, you type this email for me". I delete them unheard. But I'm an old curmudgeon.

“Dictated but not read”

Dale Carnegie’s “How To Win Friends and Influence People” has an anecdote about him writing that as kid to some person he wanted to impress, and it predictably having the opposite effect.

Re: The first minute of every phone call is torture now

#16
“Ugh. Okay, okay, just a second. I have to get my earphones to connect. Damn it.”

This has never happened to me - using either wired headphones or AirPods which connect rather seamlessly to the phone even mid-call. Just get headphones that work well with your phone’s model.

The whole article sounds very “millennials discover telephony” to me - either that or the author is in way over their head and don’t really know how to use the smorgasbord of devices they appear to have maneuvered themselves into.

Re: The first minute of every phone call is torture now

#17
post #7
post #6

I was out of the country last month. Absolutely no spam on my "in country" sim there. Just exactly what I asked for, useful calls and texts. The moment I got back, I was inundated with spam and texts. I don't understand how we've let it get this bad in the USA.

Looks like other countries have it too. What country were you visiting? https://www.statista.com/statistics/1045618/spam-calls-per-m...

Paywall

Re: The first minute of every phone call is torture now

#18

I thought only old people still used the phone for making calls.

Define “old” :)

Also even those of us who don’t ca that much, do receive calls since some entities still prefer to call you (government, medical, education). It’s either that or snail mail - despite the fact that most of them have my email address.

Re: The first minute of every phone call is torture now

#19

I cannot read the article due to the paywall, but just to vent.....one painful phone pet peeve for me that's declined recently is the art of people leaving a useful voice mail. Ok, I get it. There's a few technically-challenged people that struggle with emails and texts and prefer to use their voice. I'm perfectly happy to deal with that. But they call and leave a voice mail that focuses on the wrong information. The…

turns into a 2 minute long voicemail that is physically painful to listen to

Not like it's any less painful on a live call. I wish I had a setting to automatically tase anyone who calls me and when I answer the first thing they want to know is what I'm doing. As if it's up to them to judge whether what I'm doing is more important than whatever bullshit they've called me up for. You tell me what you need and then I will tell you if and when I can do it. Sooner or later I'm going to start answering these people honestly. "Oh, nothing much Sharon, just browsing some naked anime women."

Re: The first minute of every phone call is torture now

#20
post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Voicemail is essentially "Here, you type this email for me". I delete them unheard. But I'm an old curmudgeon.

“Dictated but not read” Dale Carnegie’s “How To Win Friends and Influence People” has an anecdote about him writing that as kid to some person he wanted to impress, and it predictably having the opposite effect.

When I can tell Google voice is messing up what I'm saying I'll end with dictated not read. I got it from the Simpsons. Only a few people get the joke. What's funny is I use it for important communications and people I need to respond to not than others
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