2026-07-28 15:42 UTC
Replies (20)
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@TallSimon@mstdn.ca 2026-07-28 21:14
@foolishowl@social.coop That reminds me, I was going to get a 1-900 number... Family can always voice call me on Signal. Everyone else? $12.99/min for the first 5 minutes, $8.99 after that.
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@rasterweb@mastodon.social 2026-07-28 15:52
@foolishowl@social.coop I answer almost every call I get, recite my script (including “This call is being monitored and recorded for quality assurance”) and over 95% of the time they hang up on me.
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@darwinwoodka@mastodon.social 2026-07-28 16:02
@foolishowl@social.coop I think answering machines started the call screening, and auto dialers started the avoidance of calls. It's been a machine battle between screeners and scammers ever since.
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@violet@sunny.garden 2026-07-28 16:38
@foolishowl@social.coop I've been against answering the phone (or door) if I'm not expecting anyone since I was a kid, but I have recently had the same thought about emails, texts, and even internet replies. They used to all be enjoyable. Now very few are.
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@bit@ohai.social 2026-07-28 17:21
@foolishowl@social.coop I've always been split about unknown numbers. I used to have one. I didn't like that companies I called stored my number without my permission and then sent back sales calls. But then my friends would never know it was me calling, and wouldn't always pick up. The telephone service as always been just awfully designed from the very start. How is it that we still can't simply block calls? No unknown numbers allowed, just block calls. Or better yet, implement a whitelist.
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@tasket@infosec.exchange 2026-07-29 02:56
@foolishowl@social.coop Nowadays... Crime scales. Criminals can automate contact with people, and easily do it to people in almost any country. Email and the Web aren't a refuge. The tech culture that promoted easy-to-use trust tools has collapsed; can-do has been replaced with cynicism. You are right to think we are in a bad place with trustworthy communication. I remember those days when phone calls were generally valid.
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@masek@infosec.exchange 2026-07-29 09:23
@foolishowl@social.coop I always get a startle when it rings. Usually it makes other sounds 🤪.
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@modrak_m@bayes.club 2026-07-29 12:04
@foolishowl@social.coop I've heard this is terrible in the US. I feel that's partly a failed regulation issue - here (Czechia), I take almost all calls, because spam/advertising calls are +/- sensibly regulated and thus are not so frequent.
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@rl_dane@polymaths.social 2026-07-28 17:57
@foolishowl@social.coop I have to answer my phone, so I've learned to answer every phone call with a very simple "'lo?" It confuses robodialers, and doesn't give voice copiers enough data to work with. It confuses genuine callers, too, but they usually respond with a proper "Hello??" and I can take it from there.
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@kelvin0mql@mastodon.social 2026-07-29 11:36
@foolishowl@social.coop Them (a person I called to do business with them): "Is this a good number to reach you at?" Me: (Explains my phone will not ring, since they're not in my Contacts. They can leave a VM, & then TXT me, which WILL ding.) Them: "OMG, I WISH I could do that. But I can't, obviously." This exact exchange happens very often. It's a joy every time.
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@kim@fedi.social 2026-07-29 11:40
@foolishowl@social.coop The other thing TV shows from that era show is callers staying on the line long enough for someone who doesn't happen to have the phone already in their hand to answer. There's a scene in Edge of Darkness where the phone rings, and the character casually finishes shaving, cleans up, pours a drink and then picks up the ringing phone. That seems ridiculous today, where callers typically give up after maybe 10 seconds, as if people might not be in another room with schmoo on their hands. Much the same could be said for doorbells, if people bother to use them at all.
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@durandal@oldbytes.space 2026-07-29 13:06
@foolishowl@social.coop things would have been far simpler if Messrs Bell & Co had been mucking about with some sort of teleprinter!
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@petealexharris@mastodon.scot 2026-07-29 13:13
@foolishowl@social.coop The willingness to pick up any call and the lack of a way to tell who is calling created opportunities to exploit that willingness and lack of knowledge. Now I don't answer a call if the number isn't in my contacts and I'm not expecting a call from a new source. It's not so much that I'm less willing nowadays to talk to a stranger on the phone (I could not BE much less willing) but now I know when it's a stranger. Why would I, then, pick up the phone? To what end?
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@illandan@social.vivaldi.net 2026-07-29 13:29
@foolishowl@social.coop I've mostly considered everything from phones to the early internet to social media platforms to be a case of diminishing returns. Once you get past the initial excitement highs that everyone experiences, there's always going to be that one person who actively chooses to degrade the good things we've got. Then it all goes downhill from there. Now, we are all forced to pick and choose our interactions than being open to enriched, sanguine connections. Such a sad state of the world. It is what it is.
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@Bogusmeatfactory@dosgame.club 2026-07-29 13:35
@foolishowl@social.coop literally as I was reading this, I got a spam call. I get roughly 50-100 spam calls a day on my number and I've heavily considered just getting a new number even though I've had this one for over 20 years.
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@syhr@mastodon.art 2026-07-29 14:12
@foolishowl@social.coop Same with answering the door – I’m not sure it’s primarily a tech industry issue. Individualism is the root cause, and tech has certainly helped amplify it, but it’s ultimately neoliberalism and its architects that shaped society into this.
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@joejoetom@famichiki.jp 2026-07-29 14:39
@foolishowl@social.coop Semi-related: When I send a group email that looks like it might be spam ("Hey, check out this article I found online!") I always include some tidbit that indicates it's truly me (like a reference to a hobby or inside joke).
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@urbanfoxe@mastodon.ie 2026-07-29 17:13
@foolishowl@social.coop my grandmother kept a whistle by the phone 'so I can blow the eardrums off any heavy breathers who call'
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@babble_endanger@freeradical.zone 2026-07-29 17:39
@foolishowl@social.coop it even happens in person On a few occasions I've reached out to neighbors about my neighborhood club and they act like I'm trying to scam them. We're not an HOA. On paper we charge dues but I never enforce them, you can attend events for free and we're doing a free picnic soon. I just want people to have a chance to make friends in walking distance. But car culture convinced a lot of people that anyone walking is suspicious and anything worth doing is somewhere else
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@wollman@mastodon.social 2026-07-30 20:23
@foolishowl@social.coop Before the 1984 breakup of the Bell System, you were *not allowed* (if you got phone service in a place where the local phone company was a Bell) to have a phone on which the ringer could be disabled. You had to lease your phone from Bell and Bell phones did not allow the ringer to be silenced. (They would, however, lease you an *extra* ringer, for less money than a whole phone would cost, so you could put one in the shop / basement / garage and rush to the kitchen when it rang.)