Here's the thing (and I'm in your age neighborhood) - I can almost never answer a ringing phone. Particularly a cell phone (we still have a home phone, but it rings maybe once per week and that's often for some automated message.) I do feel a little alarmed when I get an actual call on my cell phone because that, too, is very, very infrequent. Sometimes when texts are not going through or suspected of not going through due to no answer, we, as a family with members calling to each other (with a forgotten item for the grocery list or a change in pickup time), will then call, because calls get through more reliably.
But most often I won't answer my cell phone and it's either because I don't know who is calling or more often, I am driving or otherwise too busy to answer. I never talk while driving, although I notice just about all other drivers on the road doing so.
I answer it if I know who it is, if I want to talk to them, and if I can! But oftentimes I can't. So anyway, I typically check my phone once I'm not driving or otherwise have hands full, and then I get in touch with whoever tried to call me. I think that's how the "ring once and wait for a call back" evolved - probably from similar scenarios. What I'm saying is that young and old alike to some degree are seeing the phone as a pager more than anything else.
GRUMPY RANT STARTING:
I'm going to insert a little unasked-for opinionated opinion here: I can't stand it when people have songs, especially cutesy songs (serious national anthems, classical masterpieces, etc.) as their ring tone. Ditto for the old-fashioned ringing phone, especially because it's always loud. I want to hear others' phones as little as possible. I have some odd little spaceship type tones for mine, and it's not continuous, and it doesn't form a song. It can barely be discerned by those who don't know what it is. I like it that way and I wish everyone else did the same.
GRUMPY RANT OVER
So maybe you and I are the only two left who don't answer their phone while they are driving. :) I'm not really sure how all of the phone habits have evolved, but I do know that I answer the phone less than I used to. I think call waiting and telemarketers have certainly contributed to that. However, I do answer the phone when it is someone I know or if I'm expecting a call (if I'm not driving or otherwise occupied). Apparently, that's not standard operating procedure for everyone.
ReplyDeleteYes, I think you're right and that is pretty weird. So in that case, the phone really is being used as a pager only.
DeleteLOL. How about just buying a pager, then? I guess it's a pager integrated into a handheld mini-computer - that's what it really is.
We have allowed our cellphones to become attention seeking loud children who don't know when to wait or to shut up. I am practicing to keep the wretched thing at my beckoning not the other way around.
ReplyDeleteI've been doing that with social media sites. A particular ubiquitous and notorious one has been pared down (with so many people put on "hide" or "mute" as it were, that I find it's become mostly a newsfeed and an opportunity to hear from a few people I know pretty well. Doesn't that sort of reflect real, reasonable life, actually?
DeleteI prefer my regular phone ring, like the old-fashioned home phones. I despise hearing a song, especially rap or annoying song. I can barely hear that if the phone is in my pocket or purse, so it may be annoyingly loud. But, I turn the ring off after the first ring.
ReplyDeleteI can't stand when I call someone and their line doesn't ring. It plays "hold" music instead until they answer. The line will literally say, "please enjoy this music while we contact your party". And then music will start playing. OMGGG!!!! Stop it.
ReplyDelete