If you’ve ever called our house, there’s about a 99.999% chance that Claire — or no one — has answered the phone. I rarely answer our home phone — I say it’s because it’s never for me anyhow, if people want to talk to me, the call my cell phone. That really is true, but the fact is that I just don’t particularly like to talk on the phone.
I got to wondering why that is and here’s some of the reasons I came up with…..
First off, I have a hearing problem and if the connection isn’t all that good (very common around here with cell phones) then I don’t hear all that well — if I have to “work” at the conversation I certainly don’t want any part of it.
Usually the phone is for Claire and if I answer it I get way too much information. As I discussed in a previous blog, women like to talk — about everything. Men usually only talk about what is relevant… If I answer the phone and it’s one of Claire’s friends, the conversation doesn’t consist of “have Claire give me a call” — I usually have to listen to why the caller called in the first place. Not to be rude, but it really doesn’t matter to me if someone’s great aunt’s granddaughter ran off with the postman or that they’re taking a cruise to the Panama Canal….
Another reason I don’t care for phone calls is that they aren’t scheduled — no matter what you’re doing, when the phone rings, you’re expected to drop everything and talk about whatever the caller has decided you must have time to talk about. I don’t just sit around waiting for phone calls — and whoever is calling is expecting your undivided attention. Another problem is that whoever called is expecting an immediate response — I’m not good at that — I prefer to think about my response a bit, but on the phone, you’re expected to provide an immediate response.
I’ve noticed that when I’m talking on the phone neither the person on the other end or myself time our responses properly, so we’re constantly interrupting one another….
Some people that call just want to talk — they don’t want a conversation, they just want to talk….
It seems like it’s hard to get off the phone — the conversation just seem to keep going forever even after both parties have said goodbye — maybe multiple goodbyes….
Most phone calls take forever to get to the point — people seem to think they must ask how you’ve been, what you’ve been up to, etc. before they can get to the reason for the call…..
I mentioned previously that I do answer my cell phone — but cell phones in general annoy me as much as any phone — sometimes more. Some people appear to have the phone to their ear all day long, no matter where they are or what they’re doing. Sometimes I have feeling that some people I know don’t have any idea what I look like because they’re always looking at their cell phones when we’re together.
But I guess the real reason I don’t answer the phone is that whenever I do, there’s usually someone on the other end.
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