Can I start by saying that even though it is generally accepted that it was invented by a Scot (I disregard any claims to the contrary) I dislike phones generally - but I can just about see a case for landlines being used Mon-Fri between the hours of 9-5 for matters of life and death only.Originally Posted by kommentariat
And do you tell the nosey parkers to "bog off" when they demand your mobile number or do you give them a dud one?
Mobiles are however the work of the devil and I hate them with a vengence. This idea that people seem to have gained that they're entitled to contact you at a time which clearly suits them but almost never suits me with the expectation that you are then obliged to a) answer the fucker, and b) listen to what is invariably a pile of frivilous and mindless shite, doesn't sit well with me. For example, I have a "friend" who will call my mobile to tell me that he got a haircut for ┬г3 - who the fuck cares? I tried to tell him gently that the reason for the cut-price haircut was that attaining the age of 57 has caused his facial skin to lose all elasticity to the extent that his already unfortunate fizzog now resembles a scrotum - thus a Tuesday special Old Age Pensioner discount had automatically been assumed and applied - but he insisted that he'd found a "bargain" which he had to share with his (slightly younger but considerably better-looking) sister.
Any "demand" for my mobile number is automatically resisted, but if someone asks politely I will decide on a "need to know" basis if they get it. People on fora/chatrooms/message boards etc get the Nookie phone number, whilst online forms for car insurance quotes (for example) will get an inactive number from 20 years ago. The only people who have my "real" number are BF, friends, family, and professional colleagues. Should anybody else acquire it by nefarious means - that's where iPhone's wonderful "block" function comes into its own. My "block" list is quite extensive.
Another thing - I'm still working and clients these days seem to feel they're entitled to have your mobile number. I don't see it that way - my mobile number is strictly private and since I pay staff to answer my business landlines why should I be answering calls from clients on my mobile?
I know exactly what would happen if I gave my mobile number out to clients - they'd consider it an invitation to call or send SMS whenever it took their whim. I had one occassion where a client obtained my mobile number because I made the mistake of calling her landline from it without witholding it. Some weeks later, what ought to have been a negligible degree of anxiety over a very trivial matter was elevated by her dementia to become a crisis of international proportions causing her to ring every 30 minutes from 6pm one evening to 3am the next morning when the poor cow presumably fell asleep due to exhaustion from pressing telephone buttons for 9 hours. Of course my mobile had been set to silent since 5pm the previous evening, so her calling spree had no effect on me other than to fill up my voicemail with increasingly hysterical messages (which seemed to rise an octave each time) and to drain my battery of all power.
We ought all to insist on communication only by letter - after all that was why another Scot invented the adhesive postage stamp!
:ymparty:
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