Apparently there is something wrong with me!

[Furrydog7]

I hate the house phone with a passion. I much prefer texts and emails as i can answer when it is convenient for me. However my mum thinks that there is something wrong with me as i have the house phone unplugged a lot. She doesn't understand that i don't always want my time inturupted by people talking crap about what they have had for dinner etc and the only way to convey to certain members of my family that i cannot talk is to unplug the phone.

We mute the landline at bedtime until the next afternoon. We both use the landline to talk with people, and just text/e-mail otherwise. Both lines have voice mail. We talk to fil every evening after dinner.

We have a landline, we also have 5 mobile phones in the house, access to WhatsApp and all other social media and we use them all depending on what we are doing.

I don't understand why a landline is any different to a mobile? Mine screens the calls, I get free calls, I can turn it to silent, its not in a fixed position, it's no more expensive or intrusive than any other phone in the house but it is definitely more consistent than the crappy mobile signal we have round here and no I'm not rural. Everyone I know has a landline wherever they live.

A phone is a phone. The reluctance of people to actually talk to others is bizarre, and quite sad if people don't have the time or inclination to listen to a relative talking about nothing in particular.

We don't have a house phone, we only use the line for the fax machine for my husband's work.
Much prefer text, WhatsApp, email or FB messenger.

Society has changed. The phone is for our convenience not for the caller's whimsical need to talk for an hour about the time they ran out of milk or their husband's prescription. Luckily I know my Mum's not on here and won't read this. I like a nice chat with friends but if it's more than 5 mins we plan a call as if we're meeting up.

@pigsDOfly

I have a landline. Don't understand why poster are so scathing about them. My LL phones are cordless, I don't have to sit on a 1970s telephone seat in my hallway to make phone calls, I can sit in any room in my house, or even in the garden, if I want.

And why do posters not know who's calling them on their LL? My LL had exactly the same caller id system as my smartphone.

I also get free calls on my landline in the same way I get free calls on my mobile.

I get far more calls on my mobile telling me I've had an accident than I do on my LL.

I have a smartphone, I text and use WhatsApp but I sometimes prefer using my landline because my hearing isn't great and it's generally clearer than the mobile. Also I find it more comfortable to hold than the smartphone, which is slim and can be a bit fiddly, I find, if I'm holding it in one hand and having to make notes with my other hand.

I like having the convenience of both.

Exactly the above, I fully utilize all forms of communication. Slightly sketchy mobile signal so if I want a nice long chat I'll use landline. I also feel it's considerate to my parents who although they have and use mobiles, are only on pay as you go, which is too expensive to use for long chats, and to call me from their landline to my mobile isn't cheap either. They have free landline call package so I would rather they called me for free in my landline.

I have never not wanted a chat with my mum. At 83 I know she won't be around forever and prioritize making time for her

@nokidshere

We have a landline, we also have 5 mobile phones in the house, access to WhatsApp and all other social media and we use them all depending on what we are doing.

I don't understand why a landline is any different to a mobile? Mine screens the calls, I get free calls, I can turn it to silent, its not in a fixed position, it's no more expensive or intrusive than any other phone in the house but it is definitely more consistent than the crappy mobile signal we have round here and no I'm not rural. Everyone I know has a landline wherever they live.

A phone is a phone. The reluctance of people to actually talk to others is bizarre, and quite sad if people don't have the time or inclination to listen to a relative talking about nothing in particular.

We don’t have crappy mobile signal, so no need for a landline.

Older people don't always understand it they are stuck in their ways and don't always except people are different. X

Bingo!

Younger people don't always accept that people are different either, and that some of us aren't welded to our mobiles or have rubbish mobile signals where they live

A phone is a phone. The reluctance of people to actually talk to others is bizarre

I agree. I don’t believe that people are more time poor than 20 years ago. I get the impression that people are so much more self-important about being contacted these days. I also agree with @LinemanForTheCounty that a quick telephone conversation is much, much quicker than batting messages forwards and backwards.

DD rang DH on the landline from the car the other day to ask him to put the oven on. The call took 14 seconds. DH doesn’t always have his phone on him, and it doesn’t occur to him to check it often, so ringing the landline was the most efficient way to do this.

I have a smartphone, I text and use WhatsApp but I sometimes prefer using my landline because my hearing isn't great and it's generally clearer than the mobile

I agree @pigsDOfly. I also use Messenger and Teams/Zoom, plus I find it convenient to have a landline along with a mobile and a laptop. I like to keep all my options open as we have family that aren’t local and need to be contactable in an emergency.

We are so old school @Zandathepanda

Some posters are weirdly defensive on this thread! 😂

It’s only a phone lads...

@LinemanForTheCounty

I actually think that constant texts and messages are more draining and require more cumulative mental attention than phone calls, especially with the greater potential for misunderstanding that there is with short bursts of text, but it seems to be the way lots of people prefer to communicate these days. I'd much rather have a conversation, then it's done and dusted and I can mentally put it to one side, rather than bits and bats coming through at random times. I dunno, maybe people have more time on their hands now and so don't mind the drawn out process.

Id agree with you. I hate batting texts back and forth. I usually end up making a call. Its easier and quicker to talk than to keep texting.

Am I the only person who thinks mobiles get hot if you're chatting on them for too long?

If I'm phoning my mum I tend to use the landline as it inevitably means a long call.

Am I the only person who thinks mobiles get hot if you're chatting on them for too long

I never hold my mobile if I am on a long call or even some short calls.
I just put it on loudspeaker as I might be doing something at the same time or go and sit in the car and connect to the Bluetooth.

*Am I the only person who thinks mobiles get hot if you're chatting on them for too long?

If I'm phoning my mum I tend to use the landline as it inevitably means a long call.*

Wireless headphones, means I’m hands free to do cooking or anything else whilst chatting too!

@Blackbear19 thank you.

Also, thinking about this in a work context, my role is tangentially service delivery oriented and time after time I go to a file where we've emailed back and forth and got nowhere or I'm reading transcripts of exchanges that are 1 hour + long, just because there isn't that ability, over text, to pick up on verbal cues on specific matters, deal with it swiftly and move on. It is just very laborious compared to actually having a conversation. I'm sure that each of these people we who don't answer their phone consider that they have good reason for not doing so but it very much does slow down our efficacy in resolving their issue. But I guess they've got lots of time to spare and are ok with that. It does seem bizarre though.

That's the second time you've made a comment about people having time to spare @LinemanForTheCounty.

It's a bit snidey, IMO. But perhaps you don't mean it to be.

Most people don't have a lot of time to spare which is precisely why text/email is better because it doesn't demand immediate attention the way phone conversations do.

It's easier to bullet point thoughts, and it gets rid of the need for vacuous chit chat!

We have a fake landline that plugs into the box for the fibre optic internet. Mobile reception is dodgy and the internet package allows free calls all over Europe, which is great. We don’t answer unless we’re expecting a call, though. Surely things have moved on from the days when phoning was considered the least intrusive way of contacting a person?

I don't understand why a landline is any different to a mobile?

In terms of using them as phones, they're not much different.

That's why I've never had a landline. Cos I've always had a mobile. Why would I need or want two things that serve the same purpose?

I don’t mind a house phone in theory as we only gave the number to mum and mil but somehow even without disclosing the number to anyone it started getting 20-30 cold calls a day.

I like the idea of having a house phone for emergencies (as I often miss mobile calls) but the cold calling was extreme.

I don't understand why a landline is any different to a mobile?

Well they’re not really. That’s why I don’t have one... because I have a mobile, and the signal in my house is good. I don’t need an extra piece of equipment that does the same job.

@LadyAddle

Possibly an age thing and slightly off-thread, but when I phone people on my mobile, I find I often talk over them and don't sense when they've finished speaking. On my landline with conventional receiver, we take turns nicely to talk. ???? Anyone else?

This is because of latency.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latency_(audio)#Mobile_calls

@OhCaptain yes I was being pass agg but now I'll say it directly: communicating by text is less efficient than speaking. I see this in my personal life and in my work life. There have been many comments on this thread from people saying that they don't have time to talk on the phone which is why they communicate by text, but actually I find that text communication is more laborious so if people choose to use this method, given that it is inefficient, then yeah I'd say there have a fair bit of time on their hands and not wanting to answer the phone is due to other reasons.

And that maybe these people aren't as busy as they think they are, if they are content to communicate via a medium that involves delay and obfuscation.

Or maybe people have different experiences of communication to you, and for them it doesn’t lead to ‘delay and obfuscation’?

but actually I find that text communication is more laborious so if people choose to use this method, given that it is inefficient

Yes, you think.

Just because you think something is true, doesn’t make it so for everyone else.

I don’t know what your job is but I’d be a bit concerned that someone in a professional capacity finds emails that difficult to communicate with.

Perhaps you should look into some IT training? Because it really does seem to be the communication of choice these days.

copperoliver Sat 18-Jul-20 03:39:41
Older people don't always understand it they are stuck in their ways and don't always except people are different. X
........

I bet they don't type 'except' when it should be 'accept'

No, I'm perfectly capable of sending emails. I'm talking about the overview I have when I go into files and I see a whole stream of them over a course of days, or a record of an hour long webchat, when most of the time the issue could be resolved much quicker if people just picked up their phone. But they don't, so presumably it's not a big deal for them and they can devote the time.