I Screen My Calls
Call screening is when you don’t answer the phone when it rings. I want to confess something, I do it, I screen my calls. Not to specific people, to pretty much everyone. I just sit there sometimes looking at the phone contemplating whether to answer it or not and it that time the call ends.
I never used to be like this, this is a phenomenon that has occurred in the last three to four years. When I first obtained a mobile phone and even before that I used to spend hours and hours on the phone talking and talking away. Now the concept of it fills me with dread and fear. Here are my excuses for why I do it:
My brain gets full sometimes-I get in my head so much I don’t want any one or any thing taking me out of the space in my head. I don’t or can’t enter someone else’s head because mine is full and it hurts. Also the intrusive ringing is disturbing.
I’m doing something else-sometimes I am doing something like eating, driving or watching the apprentice so actively cannot answer the phone. I mean all of those things alone take effort and concentration and it wouldn’t be fair to the other person if I spoke to them at the same time…
I’m an introvert so I am perfectly justified- apparently introverts find it mentally draining to talk on the phone because we are special and quiet and can’t bear to talk to other people because it zaps out brainpower and attention. This is especially the case when it comes to small talk; it’s too much for us.
It takes too long- back in the days when I wasn’t scared of my phone I would spend any thing from 30 minutes to three hours on the phone! That’s a long time. Later on I learnt how to multitask. One time whilst on the phone to my mum when I made a whole lasagne FROM SCRATCH at the same time! That’s impressive. My neck did hurt (no hands free) but at least I wasn’t hungry afterwards. Now the concept of staying on the phone for hours is not something I look forward to and thus, I actively avoid it.
Don’t know who is ringing- if it is a withheld number and I am not looking for a job, the phone will not be answered. I hate withheld numbers I find them irritating. At least have the decency to be open about who you are when calling. Companies and people in general take note.
