An unpolitical unsolicited call rant for the political season:
I have no problem hanging up on unsolicited calls. If you’re my friend or colleague whose caller ID I won’t recognize, better let me know I know you in the first two words from your lips or I will disconnect you in mid-sentence. Apologies for any rudeness in advance.
Unsolicited calls seem to come far more on my landline than my cell. I don’t know if that’s a network or social engineering issue, but I know my mother and mom-in-law both get calls from “The IRS threatening to sue” or “Donald Trump” or political surveys out the wazoo. It upsets them. (Particularly the Trump calls. 😉 )
For me, running for the phone is still light exercise. For the mobility-restricted moms, not so easy. The moms also feel their privacy is being invaded. They remember a day when the phone was a private communications device and didn’t have “commercials.” Are they wrong? Hardly. We lost something important the day we let “Ma Belle” sell our numbers to hucksters. We also know that hucksters love seniors, because they tend to be more trusting susceptible to a “convincing scam.” My simple message to the moms, my own rule of thumb, is to not to buy or give any money to any phone call or caller.
With all the crap calls on my landline, I’m tempted to give it up. But for now, I minimize my time by relying on caller ID and using the two-word filter rule if I do pick up. Today’s two-word fail was: “Hellloooo seniors …” . [click!] I’m going to be such a scrappy old f###. In fact, by the time I really am a senior, I probably won’t talk to anybody. If I’m going to waste time, it’s gonna be on Facebook. An unsolicited “Happy Thursday” to all.
Leave a Reply