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Texting is also damn convenient, I can deal with several conversations at once without having to pause the movie I’m watching.
Speaking on the phone doesn’t just tie your line, it ties your whole life too.
Another advantage of text, for me at least, is that I can read much faster than I can listen. This is why I prefer text articles to news videos, even though video can often offer extra visual information over what photographs can offer.
That said, I do somewhat agree with the article’s concern that live conversation is an independent skill and potentially has its own unique side-benefits that might be becoming rarer.
Sure works wonders if you’re busy with a chore. Laundry? Dishwashing (for the unfortunate souls without easy access to a dishwasher)? That’s the best time to call any yakker you know!
I don’t think anyone answers the phone now, unless they recognize the number.
Most of the calls I get are
- spam
- spam
- someone sent me a time sensitive message, so they ring me once to respond faster
- spam
Lucky me I rarely get spam calls
American? I’m from The Netherlands and I get maybe 1 spam call every other month or so. And I’ve been using the same number for almost 25 years.
Canada, we face the same issues as the US for telecom stuff
Must be nice to a functional telecommunications agency that has the tools to punish soammers.
Oh we do too. Verizon and att make money off of selling the scammers our phone numbers and they wont spend the money to stop it
Yeah, I’m early gen-x and I only answer the phone if its a member of my immediate family and even then it’s 50/50. Capitalism ruins everything. Need to talk to me? Leave a message and I’ll decide if and when to call you back.
Everyone I want to talk to knows not to call me; I feel exactly the same. Phones used to be useful, but the sheer volume of telemarketers and scams have reduced it to uselessness. If it wasn’t for 2FA occasionally requiring a phone number, I wouldn’t even have one at this point.
You don’t always have a choice as it is dictated by the service provider, but whenever possible, disable SMS based MFA and enable TOTP or something else. SMS based MFA is susceptible to SS7 MitM attack.
2FA
Use an authenticator or Yubi key. SMS authentication is the worst possible method.
Same. In the last few years (2-3 probably, I don’t count) I don’t think I have given it out anywhere. I just pretend to not have a phone number, and if people think that’s weird I don’t care, deal with it. Nowadays if a service requires my phone number, I don’t need that service. Or in rare cases I’ll try to find a free online number for receiving a code, but that’s the only alternative I take.
Settings>Do not disturb>exceptions>Caller in contacts
alt: Set default ringtone to silent, no vibration, Set people in contacts to custom ringtones.
in ios there is a phone app setting to silence unknown callers.
Eh. Gen-x here. I still have an hour long phonecall over signal with my best friend over signal two times a week or so.
In my teens I wasn’t too happy about making phonecalls either, but working on a helpdesk for a while sure cured that.
The US has a do not call list. The vast majority of robocalls are illegal scams which originate from outside of the country.
Canada as well.
So those calls are not for the benefit of US companies?
The majority of them are run from scam call centers in India, but also in Southeast Asia.
Who knows?
We know the call center is not US-based, as those can be fined.
I’d venture most are scams too.
Like I said, they’re mostly scams. Warranty scams. Posing as “your bank” (which they, of course, don’t name). Etc. Legitimate companies follow the do not call list, since there are heavy penalties if they don’t.
Gotcha. That sucks.
Even worse, many of those scammy companies use the Do Not Call list as a list of known active numbers. Since the DNC is an opt-in thing, the call centers know that people have proactively added their numbers to the list.
I don’t really get the whole not answering the phone thing. I hate phonecalls but I always answer my phone.
The amount of important calls I’d have missed if I buried my head in the sand like that is insane.
Sure if 90% of the calls were sales or scams I’d think differently, but there are ways to prevent that too.
I find it weird that everyone has their phone on silent all the time too. If mine was on silent I’d never look at it unless I’m bored.
You realize that it still vibrates when on silent, so you know when you’re getting a text or phone call right?
Only if it’s right by you or isn’t in your bag or something. Hence audible alerts, they break through the physical barriers.
Important news almost never comes via phone call. It comes in the mail or via email.
Tell that to the delivery driver that called me because they were outside with my groceries.
I get those notifications via text message.
Cool, with the phone on silent (which I don’t do) I’d have missed that too, and would have been cancelled and rescheduled.
This adamant denial that phone calls are useful is weird.
I never said they’re not useful for anyone. They’re not useful for me.
Wouldn’t hate phone calls if it didn’t feel like somehow call quality and stability is the worst it’s been in my general area in a good decade. I’m sure it’s the big telecom guys cheaping out on towers and shoving far far far too many connections onto already oversaturated connections.
Well that and the endless spam lmao
I can’t speak for others but as an older millennial, I grew up liking spending time on the phone with friends and loved ones. However in my adult life, I spent being anxious waiting for phone calls regarding job interviews and outcomes of them, and even being interviewed on some of them, including those without much notice. I also had to make calls to follow up things urgently or if I’m in trouble. As a result, I started to equate phone calls as mostly negative experiences.
I’m a millennial and I would rather communicate by phone for information dense things. It takes me forever to type things out on this tiny keyboard. I am a verbal processor though.That said I do ignore calls unless I know who you are or I see that’s its a work number. Ultimately, I think having both handy is useful. Text can be very useful when you want somebody to remember something or vice versa. It’s also quick when you are saying something simple.
I can’t trust phone calls these days. Even if it’s a number that I recognize, there’s still a chance it could be a scammer spoofing the number. That happened to me once where someone spoofed my credit union’s number to try give them my money to protect my account.
99% of phone calls is typically a capitalistic company forcing employees to sell us something.
So yes… I’m not gonna pick up. Leave a voicemail 👍
99% of phone calls is typically a capitalistic company
forcing employeesusing chatbots to sell us something.employees are so 2010, FIFY
Meanwhile, boomers will spend hours talking to a ChatGPT script that has convinced them its the real Oprah Winfrey.
hahahahaha im dying idk why youre getting downvoted
Well obvs the bots got offended
I prefer text for simple messages but I prrfer the phone for longer communication… Im 70
I literally don’t set up my voicemail, and I typically don’t listen to recorded audio that gets messaged to me. Texting is functional and doesn’t leave me some anxiety-provoking message that I have to sit through and digest without saying anything. If a conversation needs to happen in voice, text to say that and see if it’s a good time.
Wild that people just ring a personal phone number unprompted in 2024 without that being an established routine.
That said, I also remember when it wasn’t at all weird to show up to someone’s house and knock on their door. Things have really changed.
A recent survey found a quarter of people aged 18 to 34 never answer the phone - respondents say they ignore the ringing, respond via text or search the number online if they don’t recognise it.
As they should.
Both phone calls and emails are so full of ad-ridden garbage that they are useless for communication.
Texts are better signal-to-noise ratio, for me it is more like only 1% con artist identity thieves compared to the 99% coming via phone call.
I don’t know if phone call spam is only an American thing or something. In my country (and most of Europe) that stuff is effectively banned and doesn’t really happen.
Still hate getting calls though.
having proper bans in place do help, cutting number spoofing and rooting out local spam sources + barring voips that facilitate them means spam callers would have to connect internationally and cost more.
FCC is working on getting STIR/SHAKEN in place but it’s slow.
It’s basically the security you see with certs and domain names on the web but with phone numbers. If you try to place a call and can’t provide the ‘proof’ you own the number then the phone carrier just kills the call. Also helps with traceability because now they know exactly who owns what numbers so complaints of spam are much easier to go after.
You can already see this in inbound calls in your phone app. Should have a little check mark for validated callers.
Edit: freaking autocorrect
