I first wrote about tyrant telephone callers four years ago, and recent unpleasantness has made me revisit this subject. What is it about the telephone that makes people think its imperious summons always has to be answered, right this minute?! Consider the following, please.
It's potentially deadly for non-professionals to answer a phone when they're driving a vehicle. However, unless it's your job to answer the phone immediately at work, for example, you don't have to race to answer the phone anywhere. The truth is, there are calls that don't have to be answered at all. Where, then, does society get the nerve to put pressure on people to drop whatever they're doing, to speak with someone else at an inconvenient time?History 1955 - Saw the beginning of the laying of transatlantic telephone cables.The very sounds that landlines and cell phones now make can be reason enough to snatch them up, I suppose, just to save your sanity. But why not just turn them off? The irritating rings, tones, and music can be as bad as the sound from a frustrated child; he's banging over and over on piano keys he doesn't want to play in the first place. Or the phones irritate as much as the two weeks of beeping from a low battery, before the Facilities crew gets around to replacing it.
Why do we bother to have answering machines at home and voice mail at the office, if we aren't going to use either one? There's not much that's more annoying than a spouse with a head cold, bellowing at you to answer the phone, when Caller ID clearly indicates either "unknown caller," or yet another toll-free call coming in. (Privacy Manager, from the phone company, is a dubious solution. It can sink you, if you're job hunting, so disable it or cancel it. Don't make it hard for would-be employers to reach you. )
History 1946 - Worlds first commercial mobile phone service put into operation. It could link moving vehicles to a telephone network via radio waves.What many of us didn't realize until recently is that many invasive phone calls are now dialed by a machine. When we answer such a call, there's a silence, while we inanely say, Hello?…Hello?... Hello? During that pause, the machine is connecting us to a live telemarketer. So, if no one answers rightaway, we need to hang up immediately! They even have the nerve to call four times in 40 minutes, if you do ignore them.
History 1876 - Alexander Graham Bell invents the telephone, beating Elisha Gray by a matter of hours.Outside of irritating a sick person in the house, intrusive callers don't know or care that you might be in the middle of downloading bug fixes and enhancements (otherwise known as SR1 and SP3) from Microsoft. Even with DSL, such upgrades can take a couple of uninterrupted hours, after you've reinstalled Office. The reason such callers don't care is that they regard themselves as the most important people in the world, and anything you're doing can be set aside.
History 1874 - Principal of the telephone was uncovered.What's worse, perhaps, is that it isn't just telemarketers, solicitors and pollsters, who can be rude. People from your own volunteer activities (church, community, or profession) think it's perfectly OK to call very early or very late in the day. After all, it's for a good cause, right? And heaven help you, if your employer makes you carry a pager or a company cell phone. It never occurs to Type A pushers that the rest of us function much better, when we unwind in the evenings, and get a healthy amount of rest and sleep.
And mothers, are you guilty of this, too? That is, do you expect your grown-up kids to drop everything, so you can nag one more time? Or do you call to be supportive and reassuring, which is what they need from you the most in today's hectic world?
The bottom line is that the phone doesn't have to be answered on the first ring, unless you are expecting an important call and/or don't want to alert everyone else in the house. Even then, extensions make it easy for others to listen in.
If you're the caller, you might try being a little more considerate. And if you're the one who's paying the phone bill, turn off the ringer and let the answering machine pick up the calls. You'll save more than your sanity.
Shirley Ann Parker is a full-time technical writer. She is also the author of Discoveries: A Journey Through Life, a delightful collection of short stories about the joys and frustrations of family life and friendships. Discoveries is available from http://www.bbotw.com and other online bookstores. Read more about Discoveries at http://www.shirleyannparker.com, and see more of Shirley's creative work at http://www.cafeshops.com/topazcoveplus
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