To ask who you talk to on the phone?

[Mushroo]

I keep seeing / hearing people in public having long chats on the phone. (Taxi drivers also seem to do this!).

I very very rarely phone people and if I do it’ll be to DH in the supermarket along the lines of ‘do we need butter? Ok, I’ll get some, bye’.

The world of long chatty phone calls is alien to me.

So if you phone people when you’re out and about, who do you speak to? What about?

(I’m not NT so sorry if it’s really obvious!)

My mum and siblings. Generally once a week. I HATE it. Wish I didn't have to.

Apart from that just things like phoning to check if a shop is open, make a doctor's appointment, car insurance renewal. Call to DH from supermarket - do we need milk.

Calling the tax office makes me almost sick with anxiety.

I voice note with a couple of friends

Mum in law, sometimes DH as he works crazy hours, some older retired friends, I also have friends who live hundreds of miles away as have relocated a few times and messaging is not quite the same so we chat sometimes.

I walk for an hour a day, two to three times a week it’s with friends or DH and then the other days I ring MIL and then have a bit of an internal rotation of mates to call. It’s exercise and nice to do, two birds one stone really.

Since my parents died I don’t speak to anyone on the phone.

I don’t call anyone and nobody calls me, with the exception of my Aunt who rings maybe every 8/9 weeks.

It seems everyone is too busy, despite spending ages scrolling!

My partner, every day for at least 2 hours - LDR

I think this too. I don't speak to anyone on the phone, except for the occasional business/admin issue. I have never used Facetime, or any video call, in my life - thank goodness. I have always far preferred the written word, be that letter, email, text or WhatsApp.
And when you overhear people yakking on the phone, their conversations usually sound very tedious and trivial!

Only my dh and dc really, for practical stuff mainly (we all live together). I Don't like speaking on the phone for chit chat - in person only! I use what's app, but only for arranging stuff. I don't even phone for booking appointments - use online if that's available, or go in in person (hairdressers, etc). If there is no option but to use the phone I get dh to do it! I am highly phone phobic and, like a pp, probably not entirely NT.

The only people I phone for any length of time now are my mum and my brother. I used to have long calls with my grandma too, although laterly they were shorter because she got tired so quickly, and she passed away this year.

I phone my mum every day but only out and about if I need to ask or tell her something. When my brother phones he speaks to our mum AND dad but lives hours away and doesn't see them every few days like I do. My dad isn't much of a phone person so I just speak to him when I visit them.

With my brother we just chat about everything, we never run out of things to talk about and normally talk for an hour - about our kids, common interests we have, our lives in general. With my mum it's more just talking about nothing but we can make it last half an hour or more 😂

Other than that, I phone DH about things like "can you bring bread in/pick up my prescription? Thanks, love you, bye" 😂 and sometimes my best friend but mostly we just talk on messenger unless it's something really important like a pregnancy!

I call DM every day unless I'm seeing her in person. She lives alone so I like to check in with her.

DH every now and then, but he WFH and I'm a SAHM so we're at home together a lot.

Best friend and I speak to each other every so often on the phone, we usually text.

That's it.

My parents. I don’t see them very often (due to distance and busy lives) but I speak to them regularly on the phone and it’s quite often when I’m out and about (so I can kill two birds with one stone!).

DH if he’s away (but I’d usually call from home).

That’s it for me.

OP, this is MN, so you're not likely to get the answers you're looking for -- it's populated to an unusual extent by the socially-awkward, the extremely shy, and the frankly misanthropic, who never answer their doorbell, dread the school run, and regard almost any form of ordinary social interaction as cruel and unusual punishment.

Having said that, while I talk on the phone a fair bit (to my parents, DH when he's away for work, DS if he's staying overnight with grandparents or I'm away, close friends, and colleagues at other institutions with whom I'm working on joint projects and who have become friends over the years we've moved around a lot internationally, so I have lots of friends I don't often see in the flesh), I don't like doing it while I'm out. Calls when I'm out of the house are probably usually 'Do we need milk?', 'Running late will be there in ten' or 'I'll come by and pick up DS in half an hour' stuff to DH, friends or family I'm meeting, and the parents of DS's friends with whom we swap lifts to football etc.

Sorry, accidental strikethrough.

Sister, friends, aunts who lives a long way away.
However, I see a bloke every morning on my way to work, at 7.15am, chopsing away, and wondered who on Earth he was taking to every day. Then I realised that a lot of colleagues do this early morning, as their families live 5-9 hours ahead of us here, so it’s not the crack of dawn.

I talk to a couple of online friends in Colorado on the phone. I have never met them in real life but when I talk on the phone with them it feels like they just live down the street from me.

I love talking on the phone and I wish I could talk to my real life friends on the phone but it's all through messaging and I don't want to bother them.

Pretty much only my dad! I communicate with everyone else via WhatsApp either messages or voice memos. I don't like chatting to people on the phone and I get irritated if I need to ring someone to make an appointment. I prefer online booking.

OP, this is MN, so you're not likely to get the answers you're looking for -- it's populated to an unusual extent by the socially-awkward, the extremely shy, and the frankly misanthropic, who never answer their doorbell, dread the school run, and regard almost any form of ordinary social interaction as cruel and unusual punishment.

I think you are correct. The people who should be responding here are probably too busy chatting on their phones.

I have one my mum, close friend and my sister that I chat to pretty much every other day. They're too far to see often.
Then some other friends I might chat to every now and then but they'll be long conversations catching up.

My husband is a caller and I find it so bizarre! He can easily have 4-5 different lengthy phone calls in a day and the mind boggles every time. He calls his friends, his parents, work friends. They talk about a variety of topics.

He recently asked me if I ever call a friend just for a chat, which I never do. I can't remember the last time I called anyone just for general chit chat, it's been years! Which I must be honest, suits me perfectly fine, I'm definitely a phone call dodger, will watch it ring and then later send a text - sorry I missed your call, everything ok? 🙈

@sacksanta Is your Husband my Husband? DH is on the phone to his family daily; he'll walk in the door from work on the phone to his Sister and when they've finished I'll ask 'what did SIL want?' - it's always 'nothing much' but they've been on the phone 20 minutes. We live 10 minutes apart and see them frequently, I've no idea what they find to talk about.

When I was a kid my (single-parent) Mum was ALWAYS on the phone. I have vivid memories of being absolutely bored silly playing board games on my own while my Mum chatted away for literal hours to friends or her own Mum. No real wonder I'm never in a rush to speak to her these days.

Never. Honestly hate chatting on the phone. I message everyone. I don’t have any family though apart from dh and dc so that probably helps!

For a long chat about my day? Maybe a friend now and again but usually FaceTime. Less than once a week.

A very quick 'I'm in Tesco do we need anything' is about it usually.

Not many people to be honest. A couple of friends who I don’t see often, once a month or so we have a phone call that might last a couple of hours. They both live hundreds of miles away and I only really see them once or twice a year now.
Other than that, odd ‘admin’ type calls with dh and the dc, what’s for dinner/I’m out tonight type of stuff.
I very rarely get phone calls but do FaceTime people more often, I prefer seeing people in person (Mum, sister, aunt).

Outside of work, my mum and DH. Mum is adjusting to us removing our landline and she’s finally started calling my mobile.

I call DH on the way home from work so he knows when to expect me.

Friends is normally messaging. Dses are generally messages. Ds1 calls only when something is wrong.

My partner, he loves the phone and hates texting.
My kids, usually to check they are on the way home/need a lift.
My friend who is like my partner... doesnt text
Thats it

My mum. 3 of my friends.

I'm neurotypical but I hardly speak to anyone on the phone any more. Usually it is just to make arrangements to meet up. I phone my only relative every year around Christmas. She's the only regular.

Everything else happens by whatsapp/text messages or video calls.