Another selective phone-answerer here. The only call I will take at any and all times are ones from my SO. For everyone else it depends on if I feel like talking.
Heck, I hardly ever answer my work phone either. Since that phone has caller ID I can be pretty selective. I receive a non-stop stream of calls every day from prospective vendors. I have a detailed message that spells out how to submit a line for consideration and I list my email address for a quick response. My established vendors know how to reach me quickly and I answer all internal calls if I am at my desk. If I answered every single incoming call, I would never get my reports finished, my meetings accomplished, etc.
It’s amazing how many non-answerers are here. Whatever misgivings I might have had about not being a slave to the phone have now vanished into smoke.
Finally, at the grand old age of 18, I got myself a mobile (student house with no land-line). The thing stays on all the time, unless the battery’s running low and the lead’s missing, but it’s on permanent vibrate. The only people who I’d figure would want to give me a ring are my parents, employers or landlords, and I can always give them a ring back. If my employers do ever wonder why I haven’t returned them… well, not even the most ardent of phone-users expects you to take your phone into the bath, do they?
So do I… which is why I don’t have a phone in my bedroom.
I’m a very light sleeper, normally. The slightest sound, movement, light change will wake me up… but not the phone - I don’t know why, but I have more than once woken up to find that I’m talking to someone on the phone, saying something (I think I work it into my dream somehow). Once, in college, it was one of the Deans. It is not good to find yourself talking to the Dean quite literally the first thing in the morning, especially when you don’t know what the conversation is about, nor what you may or may not have said already.
Other than that, I rarely answer my phone because I still have dialup … and I’m almost always on line. I don’t particularly dislike the phone - I just prefer this. Most people who might want to phone me know this. Still, yesterday, I had this conversation (paraphrased)
Amarinth: Why didn’t you tell me?
Amarinth’s mother: Well, I didn’t call because you don’t answer the phone, so I couldn’t get in touch with you.
A: You have DSL - and the computer’s right under the phone you would have used to call. Why didn’t you send email?
A’sM: I didn’t think you checked email.
She knows that I’m logged in, but doesn’t think I check email. I don’t understand that logical disconnect.
I, too, am an intermittent user-of-phones. I have a land-line which I joyfully turn the ringer off, and when it does ring, I always check Caller ID before answering. I also have a cell-phone for safety’s sake, when not at home. I do not like to answer that phone at all.
My attitude towards personal phone calls are that they are to make or alter plans, not to chatter inanely on. I also happen to dislike inane chatter. I have a friend/co-worker who knows all this about me, and used to blatantly ignore “the system”. She would call me at home, and when I opted not to answer, she tried the cell. She then berated me the next day at work for not having answered either call, or returned the messages which meandered on for a while before getting to any sort of a point.
I told her once, to the great amusement of the entire office (who had gathered to hear what she was shreiking about) that I do NOT answer phone calls during sex with The Master, as it disturbs his rhythm. (I was, and remain, single. ) Since then, she will call and leave a concise message for me to choose whether I should call now or wait till I will see her tomorrow. The message almost always starts with “Sorry to disturb the Master, but …”
Having said that, I recently answered the phone when a company called, “probably a telemarketer”, I groaned to myself even while saying hello. Turned out to be a good friend from high school who was, oddly, entertaining himself by reading the phone book. Glad I caught that one.
This thread frankly horrifies me. I kept waiting for someone else to post about how odd it is to not answer the phone. Finally, a post halfway down page 2. Then only two posts, out of three pages. Wow. So many people who are different than me…
I always answer the phone – I think it’s the polite thing to do. There’s an extension upstairs, and two downstairs. I’ll take the portable out to the shop if I’m out there for long. We don’t have an answering machine, we use voice-mail, so there’s no screening possible. No caller ID either.
If I miss a call, I’m disappointed, and worried that it may have been important. If it’s someone annoying on the other end, I deal with it. Some of you seem to be pretty passive-aggressive with people. That’s tempting to do, but I’d rather be honest and upfront.
I don’t get many telemarketers, and the ones who do call get told the 9 magic words, and put on the list. If someone annoying (mom) calls, I talk with her. There must be some reason she called, even if it’s just to talk. She deserves a few minutes of my time, plus later I can complain about the call. I don’t have many friends who prattle on about meaningless crap, probably because I’ve told the ones who did that I think their meaningless crap is meaningless crap, and I don’t want to hear it.
I think I understand how some of you feel put upon, and certainly don’t mean to offend anyone. I just find it amazing that so many people don’t answer the phone. I never really considered the possibility. Your reasons for not answering sound at least as valid as any reason I could give for always answering.
This thread reads like some kind of support group – so many of you thought you were weird, now you know you are not alone. Well, I still think you’re weird. But I’m not sure that there’s anything wrong with being weird…
) Since then, she will call and leave a concise message for me to choose whether I should call now or wait till I will see her tomorrow. The message almost always starts with “Sorry to disturb the Master, but …”