I Am the Friend Who Doesn’t Return Calls
Both I and the nature of calls have evolved.
“No answer is also an answer.” — Anonymous
Yesterday, I officiated myself as a serial call-misser.
I was on a walk when three of my friends called me. I avoided two of them and I missed the third call but didn’t call back. As I was reflecting on the day in my journal, it dawned upon me how, like the phones I communicated through, I’d evolved too.
As a kid and a teenager, I remember being glued to an ochre-colored box phone for hours, waiting for a call from a friend. On the day more than two of them called, I walked about with my head a little high. Now, with a personal phone and the ability to talk to anyone I want across the globe at any time, I find myself avoiding their calls deliberately.
From feeling important on receiving a call from a friend to fostering a full-fledged contempt for them, I want to analyze what has changed.
Science says the nature of friendships change as we age. Ronald Sharp, an English Professor at Vassar College who teaches a course on the literature of friendship says we’ve come to treat friendships like commodities nowadays. We value people based on what they can do for us rather than who they are. In this regard, the contacts on our phone have…
