What’s a Telephone?

Does anyone still talk on a phone?

These electronic marvels we carry with us may be called smart phones, but how often are they used to have a traditional voice-based conversation?  They have so many features built into them that I don’t think I could even list half of them.  Their advertisements go into detail on all the new bells and whistles the latest version has. However, their actual voice quality is often quite a way down on the priority list.  Not long ago my kids would comment on how good the clarity and sound was on our old home phone which only had one function.  That phone is long gone.  So instead we use these pocket wonders for most of the other computer functions they are primarily built for.

When it does “Ring” (or whatever sound you chose), it seldom is a call that you really want. Spam calls are now more prevalent than wanted calls.  We don’t even answer most of the calls that come in on our landline.  We let the answering machine screen the call and tell us who is calling from which phone number.  If we don’t know the caller and they don’t leave a message, it can’t be too important.  As I write this I checked our past calls and only 20% were someone we know, or a call we wanted.  We recently got back from a weekend away and found 14 identical messages from 14 different (probably fake) phone numbers, all about an order we didn’t place, on an account we don’t have, with a company we don’t use.  No wonder we don’t drop everything to answer the phone like we used to.

Even your Board at this W. S. Johnson Society does more of our business for our group via electronic communication than through the voice technology.  The emails, Word.docxs, spreadsheets, website links, fly back and forth, and when we do get to actually talk, it’s across the Zoom media which we had to adopt in the COVID era. Not much phone work.  It’s great we are back to luncheons for truly live face-to-face conversation.

Our US Govt. is investigating what we really know about UFO’s.  If there are any of those Extra Terrestrials that got left behind, they better not be expecting to stick a dime in a pay phone and ask the operator to “E.T. phone home” – they’re a little late for that.

Call a friend!  – Text them first to assure they pick up your call.

Gene