phone not a priority
In general, I Don't like being disturbed, either by a phone, my family, or my classmates.
That's why I never turn on my cellphone, unless I'm calling somebody (emergency), and locks the door of my bedroom when I want to be alone or to work.
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"Le bonheur est un idéal de l'imagination et non de la raison" - Emmanuel Kant
"L'homme est né naturellement bon, c'est la société qui le corrompt" - Jean Jacques Rousseau
I don't like phones. I often don't answer it. I don't mind a brief chat with friends if I'm in the mood but it has to be brief and you know when someone's trying to keep you talking when you want to go do something else or have run out of things to say...that's torture! I prefer text messaging or emails. I can leave those until I'm in the mood for words.
"They came last night?" The telemarketer will say, "What?" And I respond, "You know, from up there, they came last night." Usually they will hang up. But other times they allow you the privilege to have more fun. Another good comeback is, "Today's my birthday, you know what I'm wearing?" As Carl Hurley says, "You might as well laugh" about life, and I have come to live by that advice. Here is a good telemarketer comeback I came up with---because you can tell with the caller ID if it is a telemarketer---I have a tape recorded audio track of audience applause and pretend like I am some game show waiting for the lucky tenth caller, and guess what, you are the tenth caller. Then I ask some stupid question if they haven't already hung up. So even though the phone can be a bother, it can also be a lot of fun.
Somewhere I have an mp3 of a guy who did something very much like that - it sounds like the telemarketer's real - what the guy did was to tell him that he was a police officer and that he'd phoned a murder scene. Then he starts asking why he's phoned up a dead man "so I can clear you from the suspects list." When the telemarketer tries to end the conversation, he warns him that he's free to end the call if he wants a subpoena, finally asks him "were you his gay lover?" - the telemarketer eventually sussed out the joke, and the fact that the whole thing was being broadcast on the radio.
I like your idea of taped sounds - I've sometimes thought of having a set of maybe 10 soundbites recorded, stuff like
"you have been connected to the ACME call filtering system. To access your client, press 3"
"please state your name and the name of the company you represent after the tone"
"please wait" (followed by muzac)
"YES I'D LOVE TO BUY ONE! HERE'S MY CREDIT CARD DETAILS!....." (sound begins to crackle and break up so that the card numbers are almost, but not quite, audible.
Then I could just sit there pressing the labelled buttons, loudspeaker mode, microphone muted unless I particularly wanted to intervene directly.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fd4MKflsPtg[/youtube]
SpongeBobRocksMao
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I do not answer phones (nor do I answer doors) because it is awful to not know who is calling. Then there's the social chit-chat which I'm terrible at. I never phone anybody, I'd much rather email. I'm one of the only people in my school year who doesn't own a mobile phone.
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[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fd4MKflsPtg[/youtube]
Yup, that's the one - odd though, I'm sure the telemarketer sussed out the gag when I heard it. Maybe they used it on more than one victim?
elderwanda
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I HATE talking on the phone. Absolutely despise it...with the exception of talking to one particular friend. I usually don't bother picking up the phone at all, unless it's the time of day when my husband is on his way home, since he often calls to ask if I need him to pick up anything from the grocery store. 90% of the time, if I pick up the phone, it's either some automated call trying to get me to refinance my house, or some do-good organization trying to get me to donate money.
Just a few minutes ago the phone rang, and I really didn't want to answer it, but I knew my husband and kid were out somewhere, and it might be them. So I answered it, and it was my mother-in-law. She's a friendly lady, but I hate talking to her on the phone more than just about anything else in the world. She'll spend fifteen minutes just telling you that she doesn't want to keep you on the phone for long, and can keep a conversation going indefinitely even if you are only saying, "Yep" and "nope." This was particularly awful being I couldn't just hand the phone over to my husband (her son). There's something about it that just grates at me. She'll call again later, and she'll keep him on the phone for a good two hours, talking about absolutely nothing. Another weekend down the drain.
Usually I leave the answering machine on, so I can screen my calls, but I realize a lot of people don't like to leave messages. The few people that I actually want to hear from are okay with it, though. We don't have Caller ID, since I'm pretty sure it doesn't work with international calls and calls from businesses. Maybe I'm wrong.
Well, it seems that a lot of Aspies like talking about the phone, just not on the phone.
Again, Caller ID, Caller ID Blocking, and Caller ID Blocking Blocking make the infernal device much more tolerable. I've found that it gets rid of 90+% of the nuisance calls, and I'd never be without it again.
As the old joke goes: "Alexander Graham Bell had hang-ups." Maybe he was an Aspie...
Still, a ringing telephone is far less stressful for me than receiving a Certified Letter!
I think cell phones are one of the best inventions in the world. I'm sure they are responsible for saving many, many lives in emergency situations. I find them especially handy when I am shopping or out somewhere with someone and we separate to do our own thing. When we are ready to re-unite, one calls the other to say "I'm in aisle 16 with the canned goods," or "I'm in the houseware's department on the 3rd floor looking for a coffee maker." I am appreciative of phone technology for the purpose of communicating - NOT FOR CHATTING. Don't call me to talk about nonsense.
And don't be driving around with one hand on the wheel and the other holding a cell phone to your ear. Driving takes concentration, not conversation.
My 2 cents.
sartresue
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