May 3, 2010
The absurdity of telephones in polite society
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The telephone was an aberration in human development.… [F]or some reason humans decided it was socially acceptable to ring a loud bell in someone else’s life and they were expected to come running, like dogs.
-Rick Webb, via Wesley Hill and Marco Arment
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Absolutely. That’s why one should never feel guilty about ignoring a phone call. Voice mail is there for a reason.
I like my phone just fine. I have it set to play a tune that I really like. When someone dials it, I get to enjoy the song. When the song is over, they can chose to leave a message, which I return at my earliest convenience, or they can hang up. If they hang up, I assume they didn’t want to talk to me; they just wanted me to enjoy a nice song.
“If they hang up, I assume they didn’t want to talk to me; they just wanted me to enjoy a nice song.” // HA!
*clap clap clap*
I’m pretty sure it was our education system and not the manufacturers of telephones that taught us to come running whenever we heard a loud bell.
Ha!
I hate it when people call, don’t leave a voicemail, and then keep calling. Good grief people leave a message! I pay for my phone to add convenience to my life, not to yours! Be respectful of other people and that their time is also valuable, not to be disposed of at your whim. Whewww- thanks for the vent!
Interesting thoughts, Sarah. I find my friends to give conflicting opinions on this one. Some agree with you and others HATE it when I leave a message that they have to go through their voicemail system to get. They feel like my number on caller ID is enough to let them know I want to talk to them at their convenience, or even better, a text. I read this morning where a great number of younger people only use the talk function of their phones to talk to parents; for friends and everybody else, they text.
I typically leave a voicemail if I need something, and if I just called to talk, hang up. If the missed call thingy says “hey, I called”, and they want to call back, fine! Otherwise, that’s OK too. If I had an actual need, I’ll spell out what I need in the message.
Or, in modern age, “For some reason humans decided it was socially acceptable to play Who Let the Dogs Out cranked to full volume and they were expected to come running, like dogs, and then speak as loudly as possible regardless of the public situation they may be in.”
As for the original post, I read an interesting book by Marva Dawn called Sexual Character: Beyond Technique to Intimacy. I really enjoyed the things the book made me ponder. One of her points was that the telephone was the first bit of technology that tempted us to leave the present and the people we are present with in the here and now, to be with someone else. That interruption of face-to-face intimacy, she says, really affects our whole concept and living out of intimacy.
It’s kind of fun to get mad at the simple old telephone, when there’s so much other technology to be conflicted about :-)
Just don’t get me started on the moral dilemmas of call waiting!
Bah. We all know we’re better off for it, otherwise we wouldn’t all use them and rely on them.
Life wasn’t better when you had to get on a horse and ride into town to tell the doctor your wife was bleeding to death.
Maybe we should think about phones more the way we tend to think of 911, then: Good to have, but rarely used. :)