For purposes of this thread, checking a text message as soon as you get the notification counts as answering the phone; checking text messages later is the same as letting a call go to voice mail.
Do you answer your phone wherever you are? Do you stop answering in certain venues–church, movies, meetings, and so forth? Do you deliberately let some calls go to voice mail–say from a particular person–no matter what? Do you expect other people to always answer YOUR calls?
B!
Seriously, I generally check right away. I’m usually not in situations/places where I can’t answer or check messages so it’s not really an issue.
However, I will not abruptly interrupt a face-to-face conversation to answer my phone. I will call back during a break in the conversation or whenever I’m otherwise free.
I don’t answer my cell and it cannot take messages. It is for emergencies only. If I am out and someone needs to get me, they will just have to wait. Normally, they call my house and if they really need me, they’ll call my husband’s cell. He will either be with me or know where I am and when I will be back.
Basically, I keep it in the car and charged.
My home phone is a different matter. As soon as I get in the house, I check messages and deal with them. If I am home, I answer expediently.
Pretty much emergency use only. I HATE talking on it. Poor reception and it’s like a two way radio, two people can’t talk at the same time. I’m about to start saying ‘over’ after I speak. I don’t understand how people can stand that.
Never texted either. It’s great as a PDA, GPS, scheduler, music, email and about a dozen other things.
Anywho, it’s good to have when somebody needs to reach you and you are out and about. Just the other day my Wifes car was getting worked on and I had to use it a few times, but that’s about it for a phone. I might make 2 calls a month on it.
Do you answer your phone wherever you are?
No
Do you stop answering in certain venues–church, movies, meetings, and so forth?
Yes
Do you deliberately let some calls go to voice mail–say from a particular person–no matter what?
Yes
Do you expect other people to always answer YOUR calls?
No
If I don’t know who’s calling, it always goes to my voice mail. I’ll check it when I get a chance and call back if it was someone I want to talk to.
If I know who’s calling, I may or may not answer depending on who it is, what I’m doing atm, etc.
Texts I just look at when I can. It doesn’t bother me at all if I can’t look at them for hours; I’ll respond when I have a chance.
I never hear my cell when it rings, but I will check messages when I get them. I rarely text so it can take days for me to even realize that I have a message.
I am generally pretty good about returning a call, unless I’m very busy, and I let my Mom know when that is so she doesn’t freak out when I don’t call for a week. That doesn’t always work, but at least I can say that I told her I was busy.
When I leave a message I only expect a responce if I am asking about something specific. I will generally wait a day or two and then assume the answer is no. But I never get worked up about it.
I have no land-line, just a cell. I only give my number to people I want to hear from, yet I seldom answer it, preferring to listen to my voice-mails and responding at my leisure. And it is set on vibrate 90% of the time.
ETA: I was going to choose “other” but it was not an option so I went with “B” instead.
I take the same approach to my cell phone as I did to my (now defunct) land line.
The Telephone is a Tool that exists for my convenience. When it stops being convenient, I stop using it.
I screened all my land-line calls through an answering maching for the last 20 years or so. Everything went to the machine. If I was there, I could hear the person leaving a message and decide whether or not I wanted to pick it up. In later years, I also had a caller-id box in a different room, and if I was waiting for or expecting a call from people who usually didn’t leave messages, I could at least check that.
Due to us not being allowed to have our cellphones turned on at work, mine is on vibrate at all times (like everyone else - we’re NOT turning it off, just on vibrate). I don’t bother to change it back when not at work, because then I’d forget, someone would call me during the day, and blah, blah, blah. In any event, that means that it doesn’t ring when I’m at home. I’ll walk past it several times a day and see if there are any messages.
As for returning messages, I’m fairly good about that. You bother to leave a message and ask me to call you back, I’m going to do that as soon as I am able to. I think part of my diligence in doing this is because I’ve had past (now former) friends who were absolutely SHIT about both answering their phones and returning calls, while at the same time constantly complaining about how they never heard from anyone. (Like one dumbass who would return multiple calls about once a month, then complain about how YOU dropped off the face of the Earth and they never hear from you anymore.)
Do you answer your phone wherever you are?
No
Do you stop answering in certain venues–church, movies, meetings, and so forth?
Yes - phone is on vibrate in meetings or anywhere else it’s particularly annoying to the general public and it’s off in movies and other places where extreme quiet is appropriate.
Do you deliberately let some calls go to voice mail–say from a particular person–no matter what?
No - except - there are some places where I’ll check if the phone vibrates and answer calls that I consider may be emergencies only. During those times most calls go to voice mail. If I’m talking to someone I will check the number. Same rules apply as for meetings.
Do you expect other people to always answer YOUR calls?
No
When the kids moved out hubby and I disconnected the land line. Just didn’t make sense for 2 people to have 3 phone lines and neither of us was giving up our cell. I carry it always, it’s on usually and I’m diligent about returning messages. I’ve only really started using text messaging since I upgraded to an iphone and my daughter texts (really is that the word?) me at least once a day. I’m either in a back and forth conversation with her right away, or return the message when appropriate (lunch, after work etc)
I am absolutely awful. My phone is almost never set to ring. I see the calls later when I look for an IM or an email or something. My voice mail. . .well, I hardly ever listen to it, either. It’s not that I don’t want phone calls; it’s just that I don’t ever have my ringer on. And I don’t expect people to automatically answer my calls, either. That would be beyond hypocritical.
My cellphone lives in my purse, turned off. It goes with me everywhere in case I need a phone. I think only my husband has this number at this point, and that’s about right.
As for my home phone, I return messages more or less promptly. I much prefer emailing, though. I’m not a phone person.
Do you answer your phone wherever you are?
Hell no. Usually when I’m in public I turn my phone off, or in the very least set it to ‘‘vibrate.’’
Do you stop answering in certain venues–church, movies, meetings, and so forth?
See above. I wouldn’t even have my phone with me in these settings. I leave it in the car or office.
Do you deliberately let some calls go to voice mail–say from a particular person–no matter what?
Routinely. Even if it’s someone I like. I’m one of those introverted people, I’m not just gonna pick up the phone and talk to someone unless I feel like talking. (I’m not saying I never answer my phone, I’m just saying that if I’m in the middle of something, or not really feeling like talking, I tend to wait until I’m in the mood.)
One exception – my husband. Because it’s usually something time-sensitive when he calls me.
**Do you expect other people to always answer YOUR calls? **
Nope.
I am one of the least reliable people on the planet when it comes to returning phone calls. I usually return them eventually, but the time frame varies widely according to my business and the nature of the call. For example, if a friend calls that I don’t speak to regularly, I might wait a day or two… or a week. But if my Aunt calls, who I speak to pretty much any time something comes up, I’ll probably answer or call her back by the end of the day, usually right away if I have the time.
I’m better with texts, and downright compulsive about e-mail. I check my e-mail pretty regularly. It’s the best method to contact me.
I hate talking on the phone, and am pretty bad about answering it. I’m a bit better at answering texts, but not great, and hardly ever check voice mail. I will usually return e-mails pretty promptly.
I use it for emergency and long distance. And I will not answer it if I don’t recognize the number. And no one texts me. My phone is a pain in the butt to text on anyway,
I bought the cell phone for emergencies. As a rule it is turned off and I check it when I remember to do so. It has way too many bells and whistles. All I need is “Speak” and “Listen.”
My life is designed for minimum hassle and all people I communicate with regularly understand this.
I never screen my calls as there is no one in my life at present that I have a problem communicating with.
When I receive a messge I will respond if necessary or requested.
Retirement has its benefits. I’ve spent a lifetime being daughter, wife, mom, employee, volunteer and now, finally, get to run my life on Tethered Kite Time. 
If the Celtling is not with me, then I always check to see who is calling. If it’s not her caretaker, I probably won’t answer immediately. It’s very rare that I take a call immediately except at my desk phone during work hours. Even then if I’m trying to complete a task I will do that first.
There are just far too many people who feel entitled to my time, and who want me to spend time talking to them. Most of my family talk to each other at least three times a week, for an hour at a time. My life simply can’t sustain that. I have to filter and maintain soem control, or the important stuff will slip. (Yes, my Mother is important, no her call to complain at length about the cut of the grocery store clerk’s shirt, is not.)
Between the Blackberry, the personal cell,a nd the desk phone, I probably receive 80 phone calls each work day, and 20 or so on weekends. If I answered the phone all the time that’s all I would ever accomplish.
I’m terrible about answering the phone, but diligent about answering messages for the following reasons:
I vigorously screen my calls.
I’m no longer a big fan of on-the-phone chit chat. Plus, with two small children, long conversations on the phone just aren’t practical or enjoyable.
Answering the phone at mealtimes is a no-no in my house unless it’s an emergency or overseas call. Unfortunately, that’s when most people call us, except my mom who routinely calls me while I’m at work (another place I don’t typically take personal calls).
Nine times out of 10, the people who call me are my husband, my mom, my sister and my brother-in-law. If it’s my husband, I’ll answer every time if possible. If it’s my sister, I’ll usually answer. If it’s my mom, probably not. If it’s my brother-in-law, I simply won’t. My husband calls me for a reason, I enjoy talking to my sister, my mom bugs me while I’m at work and conversations with my BIL usually devolve into me saying, Mmmm Hmmm while he goes off on a long monologue or plays armchair psychiatrist with me, my husband and our parenting style (but he has no children).
The only calls or texts I get on my cell are from my husband, so I do answer those immediately. The phone gets put on vibrate during church, school meetings/field trips and at work: the only time it actually gets turned off is when I forget to charge it.
No.
Yes.
Not exactly. I don’t use my phone often. I can only be guaranteed to have it on me if I’ve explicitly told someone “On this date, at this time, I’ll have my phone with me. You can call me at _________.” Otherwise, whether I’ll have the phone on me, whether I’ll have it turned on, whether or not I’ll have it on silent (that happened for two weeks straight once after I’d gone to a play. I didn’t notice), whether or not I’ll actually recognize that it’s my phone ringing/buzzing instead of glaring at other people to do something about that noise, and whether I’m entirely sure where it is are all a crapshoot. Your call may very well end up in voice mail. It’s my phone, it’s for my convenience.
Of course I expect them to answer; if I didn’t expect someone to answer, I wouldn’t have called. Isn’t that the whole point?
Am I bothered when they don’t answer and I get their voice mail? No. I also assume they’re using their phones for their convenience & answering right then isn’t convenient.