Unwired but not Unconnected
I do not have a telephone; nor do I have a cell phone or CB Radio, or Satellite Phone, or Blackberry, or any other instant communication device that travels with me. Here are my reasons why:
1. I don’t like talking on the phone. I have a hearing loss that makes lengthy phone calls problematic. I may actually hear 1 word in ten, and I am very good at puzzling together what was said, but it gets tiring after a while, especially if the phone is also cutting out or there’s heavy static (common phone conditions). Most people who call want to talk for a long time about a lot of things best said in person.
2. I am a very busy person. Often, I am involved in something that I can’t drop just to answer a telephone (sewing, cooking, gardening, cleaning, working with someone else, writing, researching…). Since most people who called when I had a telephone never left a message, I was missing calls anyway. If you can’t be bothered to leave a message, I certainly don’t have time to track you down and see if you were the one who called.
3. In former days, phone courtesy was much more common, and I am too old to adapt to rude phone usage.
4. There are far too many telemarketers who want to sell me things. I never buy anything offered over the telephone. This is an absolute. I do not participate in phone surveys, either. I am not interested in making donations to organizations via the telephone. If I wish to buy something or support some charity or cause, I initiate the contact. I resent being hounded via telephone by agencies where I’ve donated before, and have been known to stop donating to them and seeking out someone else who offers similar aid to support. (OK, I also resent them wasting their donation dollars in printing and postage, but at least mailings don’t interrupt what I’m doing.)
5. Computerized phone calls. I detest these things with a passion. If you’re going to call me, at least do so in person. I will not speak to a mechanized inbound message.
6. When I did have a phone, I only had one. It takes time to get to it, and I hated dropping what I was doing, dashing to the phone, only to be greeted with a click as the caller hung up - it was sooooo urgent they just had to call me, yet they were too impatient to wait for me to answer the phone.
7. On the note of having one phone - if there’s lots of noise in the house (vacuuming, washing dishes, playing with the critters, the house is full of people…), no one will hear it ring, so it doesn’t get answered. If we’re outside, three’s even less chance of hearing the phone. That’s why, when I had a phone, there was an answering machine attached - that very few callers used.
8. On that whole age thing - phone calls were used for urgent problems, not for aimless chatter. Having been raised to expect each call to be important and an emergency, and then getting a sales call or someone who was bored and just wanted to talk is frustrating and likely to make me abrupt on the phone. I rarely have time for aimless chatter. If you’re bored and just want to talk, come over. I have lots you can do, and we can chat while it gets done.
9. I firmly believe the phone exists for my convenience - to make emergency or business calls and to place pizza orders. When its use became corrupted, and I became a tool at the beck and call of every telemarketer, scam artist, beggar, and computerized message system, I got rid of it.
10. There are other ways to communicate with me. All of them are far better than a telephone, most are far quicker than a telephone. Snail mail works for non-urgent things. Those who need to get in touch with me know where I live. For chattiness, personal visits are best. Email is quick. I check it several times a day. Oddly enough, psychic messages have a high chance of working (it’s not perfect, but it works about 7 out of 10 times - and that’s better than the telephone). If you’re Numenist and a Patternworker, making a change in the Patterns works almost every time. What do I need with a telephone? It’s no longer a tool for my convenience, so I don’t use it anymore.