I don’t think anyone answers the phone now, unless they recognize the number.
Most of the calls I get are
- spam
- spam
- someone sent me a time sensitive message, so they ring me once to respond faster
- spam
American? I’m from The Netherlands and I get maybe 1 spam call every other month or so. And I’ve been using the same number for almost 25 years.
Must be nice to a functional telecommunications agency that has the tools to punish soammers.
Oh we do too. Verizon and att make money off of selling the scammers our phone numbers and they wont spend the money to stop it
Canada, we face the same issues as the US for telecom stuff
Yeah, I’m early gen-x and I only answer the phone if its a member of my immediate family and even then it’s 50/50. Capitalism ruins everything. Need to talk to me? Leave a message and I’ll decide if and when to call you back.
Everyone I want to talk to knows not to call me; I feel exactly the same. Phones used to be useful, but the sheer volume of telemarketers and scams have reduced it to uselessness. If it wasn’t for 2FA occasionally requiring a phone number, I wouldn’t even have one at this point.
You don’t always have a choice as it is dictated by the service provider, but whenever possible, disable SMS based MFA and enable TOTP or something else. SMS based MFA is susceptible to SS7 MitM attack.
Same. In the last few years (2-3 probably, I don’t count) I don’t think I have given it out anywhere. I just pretend to not have a phone number, and if people think that’s weird I don’t care, deal with it. Nowadays if a service requires my phone number, I don’t need that service. Or in rare cases I’ll try to find a free online number for receiving a code, but that’s the only alternative I take.
2FA
Use an authenticator or Yubi key. SMS authentication is the worst possible method.
Settings>Do not disturb>exceptions>Caller in contacts
alt: Set default ringtone to silent, no vibration, Set people in contacts to custom ringtones.
in ios there is a phone app setting to silence unknown callers.
Lucky me I rarely get spam calls
I can’t speak for others but as an older millennial, I grew up liking spending time on the phone with friends and loved ones. However in my adult life, I spent being anxious waiting for phone calls regarding job interviews and outcomes of them, and even being interviewed on some of them, including those without much notice. I also had to make calls to follow up things urgently or if I’m in trouble. As a result, I started to equate phone calls as mostly negative experiences.
Everyone I need to talk to is in my contacts. If you’re not in my contacts, my phone doesn’t even ring. You go straight to voicemail.
I was fine with phone calls when I was younger. Now it’s mostly spam robocalls or scammers or both. Nobody seems interested in solving those problems.
I am interested in solving them. Here’s how: if you get any phone call that makes you even the slightest bit irritated, you hit a button and receive a quarter paid by the caller. This is traced through carriers. If the trace cannot continue for any reason or exits US jurisdiction, the most recent carrier foots the bill. I guarantee that spam calls will suddenly cease to exist overnight.
I like the way you think.
This kind of approach solves so many problems, as the vendors have a vested interest
I don’t really get the whole not answering the phone thing. I hate phonecalls but I always answer my phone.
The amount of important calls I’d have missed if I buried my head in the sand like that is insane.
Sure if 90% of the calls were sales or scams I’d think differently, but there are ways to prevent that too.
I find it weird that everyone has their phone on silent all the time too. If mine was on silent I’d never look at it unless I’m bored.
You realize that it still vibrates when on silent, so you know when you’re getting a text or phone call right?
Only if it’s right by you or isn’t in your bag or something. Hence audible alerts, they break through the physical barriers.
Important news almost never comes via phone call. It comes in the mail or via email.
Tell that to the delivery driver that called me because they were outside with my groceries.
I get those notifications via text message.
Cool, with the phone on silent (which I don’t do) I’d have missed that too, and would have been cancelled and rescheduled.
This adamant denial that phone calls are useful is weird.
I never said they’re not useful for anyone. They’re not useful for me.
I can’t trust phone calls these days. Even if it’s a number that I recognize, there’s still a chance it could be a scammer spoofing the number. That happened to me once where someone spoofed my credit union’s number to try give them my money to protect my account.
Both phone calls and emails are so full of ad-ridden garbage that they are useless for communication.
Texts are better signal-to-noise ratio, for me it is more like only 1% con artist identity thieves compared to the 99% coming via phone call.
I don’t know if phone call spam is only an American thing or something. In my country (and most of Europe) that stuff is effectively banned and doesn’t really happen.
Still hate getting calls though.
having proper bans in place do help, cutting number spoofing and rooting out local spam sources + barring voips that facilitate them means spam callers would have to connect internationally and cost more.
FCC is working on getting STIR/SHAKEN in place but it’s slow.
It’s basically the security you see with certs and domain names on the web but with phone numbers. If you try to place a call and can’t provide the ‘proof’ you own the number then the phone carrier just kills the call. Also helps with traceability because now they know exactly who owns what numbers so complaints of spam are much easier to go after.
You can already see this in inbound calls in your phone app. Should have a little check mark for validated callers.
Edit: freaking autocorrect
I’m an older millennial. I enjoyed talking on the phone until I was something like 12. Texting wasn’t a big thing yet then, but messengers on the internet were. So I realized there were better ways of communicating.
When I was in college, I was hit by a car. I was poor and had no health insurance. That led to endless calls from debt collectors. That led to anxiety related to the sound of a phone ringing. I have not answered the phone to unknown numbers since then. My life is better for it.
I only occasionally listen to voicemail, and most of the time, it’s a doctor’s appointment automated reminder. The rest of the time, it’s usually spam. No point listening.
Anyone who knows me and needs or wants to get in touch with me knows how to do so and knows not to do so by phone call. Anyone else is unimportant.
Also older millennial. I found a two minute star wars themed wait message that i recorded and am using. The number of VMs from spam I receive is practically zero. Number of VMs from Publishers Clearing? Unfortunately also zero.
I mean, maybe a hot take, maybe not … casual/social voice conversations at a distance were never a good idea in the first place.
Not absolutely at least. A disconnected voice that can summon your attention at any time wherever you are is a weird, uncomfortable, unpleasant and maybe unhealthy thing.
Textual communication at a distance odd much more natural, as it matches the disconnected communication with a more formal and abstract medium.
I don’t mind a ‘phone call’ so long as it isn’t actually using a phone number where ISPs can spy, but using some encrypted service.
I’m a millennial and I would rather communicate by phone for information dense things. It takes me forever to type things out on this tiny keyboard. I am a verbal processor though.That said I do ignore calls unless I know who you are or I see that’s its a work number. Ultimately, I think having both handy is useful. Text can be very useful when you want somebody to remember something or vice versa. It’s also quick when you are saying something simple.
I always answer the phone.
Because if you’re not in my contacts my phone doesn’t even ring.
This. I just set my phone to Do not disturb and only the calls from my contacts list are exempted.
in ios the phone app has a setting to silence unknown callers.
Wouldn’t hate phone calls if it didn’t feel like somehow call quality and stability is the worst it’s been in my general area in a good decade. I’m sure it’s the big telecom guys cheaping out on towers and shoving far far far too many connections onto already oversaturated connections.
Well that and the endless spam lmao
honestly i think this is due to unplanned voice calls essentially being broken technology now.
imagine we had 2020s email spammers while mail servers had 1990s spam filters, that’s basically where we’re at now with unplanned voice.
A recent survey found a quarter of people aged 18 to 34 never answer the phone - respondents say they ignore the ringing, respond via text or search the number online if they don’t recognise it.
As they should.
I literally don’t set up my voicemail, and I typically don’t listen to recorded audio that gets messaged to me. Texting is functional and doesn’t leave me some anxiety-provoking message that I have to sit through and digest without saying anything. If a conversation needs to happen in voice, text to say that and see if it’s a good time.
Wild that people just ring a personal phone number unprompted in 2024 without that being an established routine.
That said, I also remember when it wasn’t at all weird to show up to someone’s house and knock on their door. Things have really changed.
