About
When I was 46 I started writing essays on life, or the state of
the human condition as I once called it. Because I was halfway
between old enough to vote (21) and planned retirement (72) it
was known as the "Halfway Point" series of essays.
Later when I mentioned the essays in one context or another on USENET, I got requests for copies and eventually for future essays. Thus the mailing list was born, and it moved to the Internet when that became widely available. At that time I moved to writing on a schedule, the 1st, 11th, and 21st of the month.
Now the trend is to "blogs," and read on demand. I am therefore making this available as a blog, and we shall see if people read it here, or by mail, or not at all.
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Thu, 21 Jul 2011
People are getting harder to reach (18:56)
People are getting harder to reach
With everyone having cell phones these days, it's getting harder to get in touch. During working hours do I call you on your cell if it's personal and the work phone on your desk if not? When I want to talk to a couple, do I call the cell of the man or the woman? When there was a land line at home, I would call that, whoever was home would answer, and I could do "couples stuff" like party invites to whoever I got.When I call a cell I never know where you are (and some people want it that way). Am I disturbing you in the car, at work, out shopping, doing business? A cell will get to you anywhere, but for a non-urgent call, is that really necessary? I still keep a land line at the house, that's the way to reach me when I'm there, I don't want to carry the damn cell phone around the house with me, I want to take it off, put it on the charger, and forget it. Not to be, too many people send me texts these days, so I sometimes do wind up carrying the phone around. I thought Google voice was going to be the answer, one number which rings everything I have and I get your message wherever. Only if you send me a text, I have the "email SMS" option on, and so I get your message as a text, and also as email on my cell and my desktop. If I'm home and have the cell nearby, the house phone and the cell ring, which do I answer? And if you leave me Google voice mail, I get it on the cell as a missed call, and transcribed to text and emailed to me elsewhere (including on the phone).
I think having a cell phone is a valuable thing, so someone can be reached at any time, but the downside is they are expected to have that phone with them all the time. Have a phone associated with a place is nice in some ways, I want to talk to you at work about some things, and at home about certain other things, and for many things I just want to talk to you somewhere.
I notice people are slowly getting into the practice of sending a text saying something like "call me from work when convenient," or perhaps "from home" for other things. Perhaps that's a way to return the link between the phone and the place, so I understand the intent when you send me a message like that.
Now where do you want to be when I make that call?
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