A thought occurred to me over the course of this month- everyone that I have interacted with has been the result of me initating communications. While I am pleased on how much easier communication has been for me (particularly in meeting new people) it has become apparent that it is only because I am always the person who calls/IM’s, etc other people. So I have decided to do an experiment. What if I don’t call friends? I call my friend all the time, but he rarely, if ever, calls me. What if I no longer iniate IM conversations? Will I become invisible? Will I suddenly vanish from other people’s thoughts? So for a while (however long I can stand it, anyway) I am going to wait and see if other people initiate contact. If it turns out I am invisible when I stop speaking, well, I just found a very easy and effortless way to be left alone.
Works for me. Now, if I can only get caller id, I might never have to speak to anyone again. 
Oho, this might be funny to watch, Incubus. If you’re anything like me, you might find that largely they jsut stop.
Then again, when I noticed that certain long-time friend 'phone calls etc tended to be pretty one-sided, with a long monologue about the trouble of fitting a new kitchen, for instance, with me only there to mutter sympathetically, I figured I wasn’t missing much.
I enjoy good conversations, but a lot of “listen to me” monologues turn out to be things I can live without.
Now, I just have to get rid of the 'phone. 
Nah, can’t do that, really, I suppose.
This was me for a long time. I was always the initiator, and made the calls. I would not call, and nobody would try and get in contact with me.
Funny thing was, I didn’t talk to a friend of mine for this very reason for nearly 6 months. He had my phone number, knew where I lived, and even had my email addresses. Never sent an email, came by or called. Saw him in a Grocery store one day and he asked why I hadn’t called in so long and if I was mad. I said “well, since you never actually called or wrote me, I figured you didn’t want to talk.” He denied it of course, but still doesn’t ever call or write.
Most of my other friends do, as I have said/done similar things to them.
I’m also the one who makes the effort to stay in touch with anyone; if I don’t initiate, they don’t either. Suits me fine, though; most of the people who fall into that category were also the people who managed to make most conversations almost entirely about themselves anyway, so I wasn’t really losing out on anything. It doesn’t surprise me that all of my long-running friendships are with people who actually will call me or email me and ask me what I’m up to on a regular basis.
Expect people not to call you.
And expect them to get very angry with you for not bothering to keep in touch. (That “the telephone works both ways” thing never seems to sink in…)
I have one friend who nearly always initiates the calls. That’s the way he is. So I rarely call him. But other friends are not wired that way, so we call each other or are called to a pretty regular degree. And, most importantly, we’re smart enough to know that not talking for a month or so doesn’t mean that we hate each other–just that we’re busy (or, frankly, don’t have anything new to talk about).