Webb’s Media

I became acutely aware of my phone anxiety when I went to call to try to set up an appointment for a kid participating in my research study. Just a simple phone call. But I flashed back to the days of working in an office with a list of people to “cold call”–not to say I was soliciting something, but sometimes I’d be asked to call and try to figure out who the “decision-maker” is in a company. It’s like playing Taboo…because of course, you can never say why you’re really calling. You’re trying to trick people into giving you information.

Recruiting people for my study is different, but I’m still requesting a favor of a stranger. So to ease the anxiety of cell phone calling [cell phones are programmed to cut calls more frequently if you are talking to someone you don't know or need important information from], I decided to use SkypeOut for the call. So I call and immediately am connected to the person I need to reach. So far so good. But mom is not home to coordinate schedule. Fine.

“Do you need my phone number?”
“I have it right here, it came up through caller ID”
Confused 1 second silence. “Really? I’m calling you through my computer. What number came up?”
Confused silence on the other end. “Through your computer?”
“Yes, I’m calling through my computer” (Apparently the connection is as clear as a cell phone).
“The number is 0000123456” (This is not some scrambled message, that is what she actually read back to me.)
“Let me give you my actual phone number…”

And I’m thinking…good thing I’m studying critical thinking skills. I can understand if a phone is a foreign concept, but this is a teenage girl. Never mind that it starts with 0s and the numbers move sequentially and only get up to 6…not enough numbers to connect with someone.

Then I thought, maybe phone numbers don’t mean the same thing to the younger generation that they meant to mine. These kids have never had to dial a number on a rotary phone. 2-click-click 3-click-click-click8-click-click-click-click-click-click-click-click- And that’s only for the exchange. Now no one actually has to really dial area codes and exchanges if they choose, because they can program numbers into speed dial and just redial back to caller ID numbers. I don’t know how old I was before I understood area codes and exchanges, though area codes was definitely first…because calling long distance meant spending more money, so you could get into big trouble calling to a different area code.

Frankly, though, I think it was more fun the old way. Sure, I never was the 10th caller into a radio station with a rotary phone, but there was a certain security in calling people in cognito. You could, for example, call just to see if someone was home, without them knowing what a phone stalker you were. Of you could prank call your teacher, without them knowing it was you (of course I would never do that). And when the phone rang, it was the sound of possibility…because you never knew who was on the other end. Now it’s just a sound of embarrassment, when you forgot to put the cell in manner mode during a test.