Tag: phone

SoCS: phones

I know I’ve written before about my troubled relationship with my cell phone, including in my JC’s Confessions series.

That was a while back and I can’t say that the relationship has gotten any better. I’m still not a fan of people thinking they can call or text me at any time and that I will respond. And by “people” I mean businesses and individuals who aren’t close family/friends.

Unlike most people, I don’t have my phone with me at all times and I turn it off at night. When I’m out and about, I usually have it silenced so that it doesn’t interrupt whatever I’m doing.

For the most part, I try not to give out my cell number. It annoys me that, in situations where I have to use it as a secondary or emergency contact number, places like doctors’ offices will default to using it, even though I’ve said that it is for emergencies only. I sometimes have to remove the number from my profile to get them to stop calling or texting.

I prefer to have people call my landline and leave a message if no one is availabe to answer. Then, I can return calls when I am available and have time.

I just don’t need the dentist office telling me I have an appointment the next day when I’m in the frozen food aisle at the grocery store.

In truth, I don’t use the phone as much as I used to. For decades, I spoke to my mom nearly every day by phone, usually even on days that I would be seeing her in person later on. She passed away in 2019 and my father in 2021. With B working from home and T living with us and E and her family in Europe, I don’t have any regular family phone calls anymore.

When the phone rings these days, it’s most likely to come up as “potential spam” on the caller ID.

The answering machine can handle that…
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Linda’s prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday this week is “phone.” Join us! Find out more here: https://lindaghill.com/2024/09/13/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-sept-14-2024/

SoCS: the phone

At this point in my life, I’m not a big fan of the telephone.

It can take a lot of time and energy to convince myself to make the call, especially if I know I’m likely to have to work through endless phone menus or get put on hold multiple times and shuffled between service personnel.

(Yeah, looking at you insurance companies, utilities, etc.)

There were periods in my younger years when the phone was an important lifeline and source of connection – when B used to travel a lot on business, when I was away from my mom.

Even after my parents retired near us, I usually also spoke to them every day by phone, even on days when I also saw them in person.

Those calls were not hard to make. Or receive.

I still use my landline for calls whenever I can and still have an answering machine to pick up if I can’t – or if the caller ID suspects spam, which is most of the time these days. All three of us happened to be out together earlier this week and I went to check the machine for messages when we got home. I realized that since Paco (my father) died over two years ago I seldom get personal messages on my phone.

Actually, it’s longer ago than that because Paco forgot how to make phone calls in his last months.

Somehow, though, I keep checking for a call…
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Linda’s prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday/Just Jot It January today is “make the call.” Join us! Find out more here: https://lindaghill.com/2024/01/26/the-friday-reminder-for-socs-jusjojan-2024-daily-prompt-jan-27th/ 

SoCS: cell phone

Linda very helpfully posts the prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday on Friday so that we have a bit of mulling time – although in-depth planning is against the rules – but, lately, I haven’t been remembering to check on Friday.

Today’s prompt is to write about a word that contains “ph” and the first thing that popped into my head this morning was cell phone, so here goes with straight-up stream of consciousness…

I know I’ve written before about my love/hate – much heavier on the hate than love – relationship with my cell phone. I seldom use it for calls. I prefer people call and leave a message on my landline if I’m out and about. I don’t want to talk to my dentist’s office while I’m out grocery shopping or something. I use my phone mainly for communicating with my family, for example, to text to let them know I’m on my way home.

I almost never use text or calls with businesses unless I have to. It annoys me if I have to use my phone to authenticate all the time. I turn it off at night and am often in a different room than it is during the day.

I seldom even turn on the data. I connect to wifi at home and sometimes when I’m out and about, for example, in a waiting room so I can read mail.

I don’t play games on my phone.

I do sometimes use it for photos but I’m not one of those people who takes photos every day. I’m not one of those people that needs an image to convince myself that something actually happened.

A lot of things that most people do on their phone, I do with my Chromebook. I appreciate a large screen and a keyboard. I also like that it is easy to turn off and leave behind.

So, in our 24/7/365 culture, I am a bit of a throwback. Even though I have a cell phone, you can’t reach me on it anytime, anywhere.

But I will get back to you.

Sooner or later…

JC’s Confessions #8

On The Late Show, Stephen Colbert does a recurring skit, now a best-selling book, called Midnight Confessions, in which he “confesses” to his audience with the disclaimer that he isn’t sure these things are really sins but that he does “feel bad about them.” While Stephen and his writers are famously funny, I am not, so my JC’s Confessions will be somewhat more serious reflections, but they will be things that I feel bad about. Stephen’s audience always forgives him at the end of the segment; I’m not expecting that – and these aren’t really sins – but comments are always welcome.
~ JC

I have a love/hate tolerate/hate relationship with my smartphone.

It is a perfectly fine Android phone, but I can’t get used to it. I don’t find all the tapping and swiping intuitive. The first call I got on it I couldn’t figure out how to answer. I guess the Verizon Store employee assumed I would know how, although he did know that it was replacing a flip phone.

Before I go further, I should explain that I don’t use my cell phone for general communication. Only family, a few friends, and people who might need to reach me urgently have my cell number. I don’t want to hear from my dentist’s office with an appointment reminder while I am shopping or driving or visiting.

I have learned to use texts. My flip phone could text, but it was so hard hitting the numbers multiple times to get the correct letter that I seldom did it. So, I do text with my smartphone. I just don’t do it very well. I don’t have very big fingers, but the keyboard is so small that I am forever hitting the wrong letter or finding myself in the emoji section when I am trying to type a comma.

I don’t like having to have apps for – well – just about everything. I’d love to delete a bunch of them, but some of the ones that came preloaded on the phone you aren’t allowed to delete. I really, really dislike notifications from apps. I try to turn most of them off, which involves going through a bunch of confusing screens in settings.

I have a lot of trouble navigating and finding things when I need them. When we went to London in December, we sometimes had our travel documents on the phone rather than printed out on paper. It made me really nervous that I would not be able to pull up what I needed. At one point, I was trying to scan a boarding pass to get through a turnstile sort of thing and wound up on some other screen and needed to be rescued by an airport employee to get through the checkpoint. It was disconcerting.

At this point, you may be thinking, “Wow, Joanne must really be a Luddite,” but I’m not totally without technical skills. I’ve managed to keep this blog going since September, 2013. It’s not fancy, but it exists. I do much of my poetry in google docs. I’m decent at researching online and finding reliable sources, instead of fringy ones. I know how to use some keyboard shortcuts. I can even troubleshoot some problems – restarting often works wonders – although I need to call in reinforcements, sometimes. Fortunately, my spouse B has worked in tech for decades and my (now adult) daughters are digital natives, although one is quite a bit more tech-oriented than the other.

I do not, however, feel compelled to be reading or playing on my phone at all times. I don’t need to look up some factoid on whatever subject. I don’t need it to tell me what time it is or when my next appointment is. I don’t feel lost without it.

I will confess, though, that I sometimes need it to tell me the date. My paper calendar is not so good at that…
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If you want to read other JC’s Confessions, there is a handy-dandy link at the top of the page. This confession is also part of Linda’s Just Jot It January. Join us! Find out more here: https://lindaghill.com/2020/01/19/daily-prompt-jusjojan-the-19th-2020/

SoCS: Ggggrrrrrrr

I don’t know if I can bear to make another phone call.

Well, not any phone call, but one to the NYS Health call center.

I have been trying to get an insurance situation resolved for the coming year and have had several loooooong phone calls with them – plus some online chat sessions.

And we still don’t have the situation resolved.

Unfortunately, I’ll have to wait for Monday because I think I need to talk to the IRS.

Doesn’t that sound like fun?

Everything has to be resolved by December 15, so let’s hope they all have their act in gear next week when I plunge back into the fracas.

I knew there was a reason I have been a long-time advocate for single-payer…
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Linda’s prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday this week is bear/bare. Join us! Find out how here:  https://lindaghill.com/2016/12/09/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-dec-1016/

 

What I didn’t want to spend time on today

We use Time Warner Cable for our TV, phone, and internet and just got a new modem of our own to replace the leased one.

My task today was to give them the identifying numbers from the new modem so that we could complete the installation.

The TV is working fine. Yay!

The internet is working fine. Well, mostly. My inbox for my email is not working well with my Chromebook, which is super annoying, but other than that the internet is working as usual.

The phone is dead.

After multiple online chats, modem restarts, checking of connections, etc., we need to have a technician come tomorrow morning.

It’s a bit awkward because I need to call all the elders so they know to call the cell phone instead of the landline. Anyone else is out of luck, as our cell phone numbers are not in wide circulation.

The silver lining is that one of the people helping me through online chat gave me an idea of how to fix the access problem I’ve been having using webmail on my Chromebook.

A lot of what I planned to accomplish today is just not going to happen.

Maybe tomorrow.

Or Wednesday.
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This post is part of Linda’s Just Jot It January. Join us! You can start by checking out this link: http://lindaghill.com/2016/01/11/just-jot-it-january-11th-effortless/

JJJ 2016

To find the rules for Just Jot It January, click here and join in today.