Since childhood, I don't answer the phone. In the old days, one lurked by the message machine to overhear who was leaving a missive. With the advent of caller ID, one can screen calls from the handset of a phone - yet even when the number is one I recognize, I frequently don't answer it.
Further confessions- I also stockpile messages and listen to them in bulk, sometimes necessitating the ten day call back rule. Somehow I can't handle getting back to the caller right away, regardless of whether personal or business.
How to explain this foible? My position seems to be that no interruption feels important enough to penetrate the sanctuary of my current state. So I'm a raging introvert, or perhaps this is my reaction to our unrestrained modern accessibility. Never in history have so many been so universally available. Boundaries between "work" and one's personal life are increasingly blurred...too often I've returned a business email after 11pm and been shocked to receive an immediate reply.
I wonder, is this a bad thing? Well, doubtless many of us want to work on our own time and terms, or we chalk it up to efficiency, or we want to "clear out" messages so we are free to work uninterrupted for large blocks of time on something demanding greater concentration. Yet as much as it appears to be a matter of personal choice, those on the other end of the line ( email or phone) are increasingly more demanding about the speed with which we respond.
I ruminate that in the days of the letter ( prior to phone service, and let us recall that the email is internet dependent and therefore phonage), ten days to two weeks may have been an acceptable time frame. I'm reminded of the novel Time and Again by Jack Finney
wherein we learn that in the 1880's New York City offered mail delivery to one's home ( front door slot) five times a day.So at that time, at least intra-urban, one might have experienced a similar connectivity to the modern equivalent.
Perhaps I'm given to ponder this fact because my family was without connectivity for almost a month in the wake of the Great New Hampshire Ice Storm of 2008.
Granted, we already existed on the fringe of US civilization because we eschew cable - or satellite or anything else, and have lived this way for over three years. There's much to say about what happens to your family life- all good- once the boob tube goes dark.
Such Luddite practices may have become more in vogue with the advent of rocketing unemployment and belt tightening; indeed, cutting the cable cord is one of the first recommended steps in reducing costs.
This is not to say that we exist without entertainment. The different is, we plan our viewing and because of that one fact, we frequently view en famille. Viewing becomes more of an event; also, our viewing is necessarily of longer duration, since most of what we watch is on DVD or Netflix on demand. The remainder sourced on the internet. So, in the living room, similar to those who partake of DVR, Tivo or VUDU , we escape commercials, only watch what we plan to watch, and watch at a time and place of our choosing.
Back to the phone thing - I guess that's my position- I'm willing to talk, but when I'm ready, and the modern convenience of being able to schedule favorite programs has only further entrenched my stand.
