My Neglectful Relationship With the Phone

Janelle has a post up about why she hates the phone. Link.

I haven't used the phone a lot in the last couple of years. I used to have super long conversations with an ex of mine, like an hour or two a day for a few years. But since then I've not really had many people to talk to so much and I've become an MSN junkie. I always just leave people messages instead of calling them unless it's an emergency.

I like the sounds of people's voices, though, sometimes if you close your eyes and really listen you can pick up on a lot more of what people are thinking by hearing the intonations in their voice. A person's voice is how I remember and identify them, so I think the phone is more my natural medium. MSN is fun, and nice and non-committal, which is good when you're (I'm) feeling shy and can only muster up a ginger clever comment to send to someone to see if they're around and not busy. If I could send random goofy voice messages without the synchronous limitation of the telephone I'd be all over that.

I know a few people who work at call centres who absolutely hate the telephone because they're chained to it all day, MSN is a godsend for them, so they say.

I wonder if we're collectively committing medium abuse the way we misuse such a lovely method of communication like the phone so much. Cell phones chase us down wherever we go, telemarketers try to convince us to buy things we don't need in our own homes, banks and other BigCo's don't call you to say what a great customer you are and how much they appreciate your business, they call when you've been a bad customer and owe them money.

Perhaps the poor phone is in need of some serious rehabilitation. Steps I think I'll do myself:

1. Get a nice old fashioned telephone with an actual physical bell instead of a piercing electronic trill for a ringer.
   
   
2. Do as little bill paying / commercial inquiries over the phone as I can. I already pay my bills online, but I'd like to steer clear of as many voice menu systems as I possibly can.
   
   
3. When a telemarketer calls you hear a very quiet 'click-pause' as the dialer detects that you've picked up and it sends the call to one of the slaves to start reading the script. This is unmistakable if you listen for it. Hang up.
   
   
4. Call my relatives (grandmother, sister, cousin) more often just to see what's new.
   
   
5. Have a phone that is nowhere near my computer. The dual temptation to either IM someone else or look up something on Google quickly to pretend I knew it all along are too strong, and terribly inorganic.

This is a next step to my commitment to say 'hello' more freely when I'm out and about. I've gotten to know a few people in the past weeks directly because of that.
Technorati Tags: Telephones, Communication