August 13, 2012

Caller ID....it's a great piece of technology....until it's not.

Caller ID.  It's fabulous, isn't it?  Before it came along we actually had to answer the phone in order to know who was on the other end.

The anticipation was almost painful; wasn't it?  Would it be the cute guy you met the other day?  Would it be your best girlfriend calling to pick apart the latest gathering of friends and what they were wearing in minute detail?  Or would it be the annoying sales call? Or your mother reminding you for the gazillonth time that you need to call your Aunt Gladys?

You just never knew.  Picking up that ringing phone was a roll of the dice.  And being the curious humans that we are, we usually picked it up and sealed our fate - either we got a date out of it or we hung up the phone being more than a bit annoyed.  You just never knew!

Until Caller ID came into the picture.  Then we were freed from the bonds that a ringing phone brought.  We no longer HAD to answer it - we could just look at the little window and figure out if we needed or even, wanted, to answer it.  And the angels sang - much to the annoyance of the sales guys and moms the world over.

And then other fabulous technology crept in.  Like Speed Dial.  Another wonderful invention - no more would we have to store those all important phone numbers somewhere impractical; like in our brain.  NO.  Now with ONE push of a button you could call whomever you want.  It was magical.  Just think of all that free space your brain has now that it no longer has to store all those phone numbers!

But then one day you realize a fatal flaw to all this marvelous technology when you accidentally hit the wrong speed dial and the phone rings a few times before you realize your mistake.  You hang up and pray that the person on the other end of the phone never checks her Caller ID.  But, of course, she does; because as I mentioned before humans are curious.  They want to know who called.

And despite the fact that you really don't want to talk to the person you accidentally called (because you are beyond aggravated with them and their choices and figure the only way you can remain friends is to not actually talk to her until you - and things - calm down or you might actually tell her that you are aggravated with her which would lead you down a road you aren't really ready to deal with at this moment in time) you are then INUNDATED with voice mails and texts from this person.

And then?  That is when you realize that maybe Caller ID wasn't such a good idea after all.

9 comments:

  1. I hate when that happens! For me it's usually my cell phone and I'll hit the button that calls back the last person who called me who is the last person I want to talk to but now she thinks I must talk to her, RIGHT NOW. Almost makes me wish I had an outgoing voicemail message in Spanish that I could choose for times like these. Hey, wait, new technology, just waiting for us to invent it.

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  2. I love caller ID and only use speed dial for immediate family, so if I hit the wrong one, it's not usually a bad thing. Usually. (the numbers are in a specific order, so I rarely screw it up)

    My cell phone had distinctive rings for each family member and hubby still hasn't figured out that if it's a plain old ring, it's not important, don't break your neck trying to get to it!

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  3. Ha! Yup, sometimes technology is our worst enemy. To bad you don't have a little one running around that you could blame it all on.

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  4. I don't check my caller ID. Feel free to call anytime. :)

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  5. When I'm home I never answer the phone!

    I let the answering machine click in and when I'm ready, I'll take a look.

    We get a lot of "Please don't hang up! We have an important message which could save you ..." automated calls.

    We also get sales calls from people in India ...

    "Hello, could I speak to Mr. Smith?"
    "Sorry! Wrong number!"
    "Sorry. My name is ... " Gordon/John/Gareth (pick one)

    And they go into their sales pitch ... and I hang up!

    And the strange thing is that nowadays they always introduce themselves with typically western (English) name in the hope that you will not associate them with an Indian call centre (because they know we all hate Indian call centres). As if their thick Indian accent is not a dead give-away!

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  6. I don't have caller ID on my home phone and I reckon half the calls I get are sales calls (the other half are my mum!) I should just get the 3 year old to answer the phone for me.

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  7. I check the caller ID before answering, too. But I only have two people on speed dial, my husband and my sister, so I'm safe from your situation. Hope it all works out and becomes good fodder for a post! I'd love to hear about how it all plays out. :-)

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  8. Oh no!! Don't you hate that?!

    I remember being so excited when answering machines came out because you could screen your calls to see if you wanted to answer or not. (Am I dating myself here? LOL) And then when caller id came out? Wooh! It was amazing.

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  9. Yeah, sometimes I love it. Other times I hate it. Our phone service has the number come up on the TV screen.

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