Yes, of course I screen my calls, and my texts, and any messages, really. I do it for the benefit of others, I promise. I’m not a phone person.
I love my friends, even the morning people, but I am incapable of polite response until a certain amount of wakefulness has developed and it would be bad to start the day with, “Why the fuck are you callin me at 8am? What the fuck is wrong with you? It’s like you don’t even know me!”
My mother does not call me anymore.
My mother has been on the wrong end of too many sleepy conversations.
Sometimes I get text messages that I don’t know what to do with. They seem intense and complicated and I need more coffee and time or I’m liable to reply, with stuff like, “Sucks to be you,” or “Told you so” or “I really don’t know what the fuck you’re goin on about but I’ll talk to you later.”
(I actually have lovely phone presence, but I reserve that Fake Bitch for less personal circumstances. For instance, The Mister asks me call teachers and parents, or to renegotiate charges. At work, Mentor often asks me to make the unpleasant phone calls because it’s pretty hard to get mad at the soft-spoken girl on the phone, and if you do, she’ll get haughty and snippy and you’ll realize how rude you’ve been.)
It’s not always a morning thing, or a grumpy thing, sometimes it’s a busy thing.
I am, in fact, sometimes too busy to deal with my phone.
I am one of those people who ignore my phone when I’m out and about. I need to save my battery for photos, of course.
On the weekends, I’m terrible about looking at my phone, because generally, my family is here.
If I’m busy and my phone is blowing up, I actually reply with, “I have company right now” or “I’ll call you when I leave here,” and if it continues, I’ll turn my phone off. I feel like the people in front of me deserve my attention.
I have friends that think it’s rude not to answer or reply immediately. I can tell, because when they’re with me, they do immediately respond to the sounds on their phones. I could write a much longer post on how rude I think that is. Rather at an impasse there.
Overall, I’m conserving energy, waiting for a better frame of mind. Are you a solid screener, or are you more easily accessible?
SoCS ‘screen’ is brought to you by LindaGHill
joeyfullystated 
I’m glad to know that I’m not the only person who reacts to a buzzing phone as it’s the start of an invasion.
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Haha! Sometimes it’s like that. Thanks, Robert 🙂
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🙂
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“I am one of those people who ignore my phone when I’m out and about. I need to save my battery for photos, of course.”
YES. THIS.
Not only is one extremely lucky that I even hear my phone when Im out & about, but pushing a wheelchair and talking on a phone is a great way to get me to go around in circles..Or at least watch me pace back & forth in the middle of the road (cuz no sidewalks..) Even with the clip on my otterbox defender phone case, keeping it up close to my head enough to where theres not a lot of “Wait, what??” coming from either end is laughable. Its just not feasible. Its like having a phone conversation while pushing a stroller on a gravel road.
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That’s some pretty funny imagery, Orb! 😛
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You know that I do not negotiate. It is best to send a well trained and skilled negotiator into conversations. I either get a high price, or I simply explode. I am here to intimidate, to interrogate, but not to negotiate. That is an area where my charm has no skill as I do not have the patience for it.
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Happy to be of service, thank you 🙂
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You are quite welcome.
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I used to always be texting on my phone. I do always take it with me but always miss calls because it is on silent when I am at work and I never bother taking it off !! I do look at it from time to time when I remember!
As for the landline, I always feel obliged to answer it even if I am eating dinner or in the middle of something. Silly really as I am annoyed and distracted when I do that and would have been better off telling people to call back! 🙂
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I do the same thing with the silent feature on my phone. Turn it off at work and forget to turn it back on.
Worse, I’ll do it, and then when the house phone rings, I’ll look at my husband’s name on the caller ID and KNOW my phone is still silent, but forget again! :O
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Ha! Me too! 🙂
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Haha!
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What’s your number? Oh…never mind.
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Love that saving the battery for photos! Me too!
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I hate talking on the phone, I’m just no good at small talk. I was overjoyed when text messaging arrived. Then It pissed me off when people became able to see that their message was “delivered.”
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Solid screener here.
Do people still do group texts? Those were the worst.
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Yes ma’am, they sure do.
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We disconnected our land line years ago so all I have is my cell phone. Which I rarely use–I so prefer text. When I am good and ready, of course. Joey–I love the Fake Bitch comment. What a riot!
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What can I say, Lois, you’re my kinda people! 🙂
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I screen my cell….but I still have a house phone. Laid down today and took a nap, the house phone next to the bed rang. I answered it to hear, “Hello, this is Donald Trump!” I swore and hung up. I need to work on my house phone screening skills.
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Lawd. Talk about a rude awakening!
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Hahaha! Yes, indeed!
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I screen like a mofo, and will NOT tolerate people checking their phones in the middle of a conversation unless they tell me there is something important happening first.
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That must make you a hero of sorts. Teach me your ways!
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I just leave.
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NOTED!
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I have a cell phone for the camera; and the one in 1000 chance I might need it for an actual emergency. On those infrequent occasions when I get a call when I am out I usually miss it. My ring tone is “Don’t Fear the Reaper” and naturally I have to sing along whenever I hear it. So by the time I get around to answering, the caller has hung up. On the land line if I don’t know the number it is ignored. If you are with someone and they insist on answering their phone aren’t they telling you that they prefer chatting with some dis-embodied voice than with real live you? Now that is rude.
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Great song! Can’t fault you for singin along! I ignore unknown numbers most of the time, too.
I wonder about the phone-people, I always think I’m being old-fashioned, but it’s a bit like inviting someone to my house and then ignoring me, isn’t it? That’s how I feel.
I understand waiting for a call, sometimes we have to say that, “I’m waiting for a call, so I apologize in advance.”
Do you remember the day we went out to Brightwood? The Mister and Orb, checkin on me, makin sure you weren’t an axe-murderer lol — that seemed relevant! 😛
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I would say that was quite relevant.
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I am just not a phone guy. I like mine for internet access, the camera, email, etc. I actually dislike talking on the phone, any phone. Talk in person, fine. Exchange emails, fine. The phone…bleh.
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Ah-yup!
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It drives me batty the way people let their phones run their lives. My phone has a mind of its own or maybe its reading my mind, but the alerts (blinking light, buzzing, ringing) keep turning themselves off. I swear, I don’t do it. So now I don’t even bother fixing it. I like the silence. I check it now and then, particularly if my kids are out and about, to see if there’s a message but mostly I ignore it.
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You nailed it. When I’m waiting for my kids or my husband, I do look at my phone quite a bit, but it certainly doesn’t run my life, either.
Interesting about your notifications, I’m always turning mine off and forgetting I did…
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I screen like hell. Unless the phone call/text is from a number where one of my kids is staying, it gets ignored until I have time to answer back. My dad is one of those people who believes you should answer/text back IMMEDIATELY, no matter what. He called me several times in a row within a few minutes one day (and I was legitimately busy), and when I answered, his car wasn’t broke down, he wasn’t injured, nothing catastrophic has happened (as you’d think with that many calls in a row). No, he wanted me to look up something online for him. And he called from his smartphone.
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I understand this completely.
It reminds me of how people will come to my blog and ask me questions, and I’m like, OMG, look it up! What am I, Google?!?
One time, my husband text me to tell me to renew library books, while he had the email link on his phone. That was not a good day for our marriage! 😉
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LOL 😀
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I screen with the best of them. Only I hate that the text message feature says “read” when you’ve read a text, thereby alerting the sender that you have, in fact, seen their message and are ignoring it. Makes it harder to be stealthy/screener-y.
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I agree, that’s sucky.
In the group text I received this morning, I tried to skim the headlines, so to speak. Still haven’t opened it. Gah.
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Group texts are THE WORST.
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*nods emphatically*
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I actually like when I am home alone and know someone else is alone~ to Talk!
Many of my family members, and recently guy I dated for 4 months, like to handle everything (including, or especially, times when we weren’t quite in agreement.)
The cell phone on any girl or guy lunch or dinner dates/planned outings should be put on “vibrate.” I think in emergency, you will check vibrating and then respond. My own grown children while with me, know this is how I expect them to act.
I cannot control dates or girlfriends I spend time with but I won’t go to movies with one anymore since she texts the plot and action to her boyfriend!? Who does this? A 62 year old silly girlfriend! Crazy, since other movie goers could report her– so distracting!
I apologize for delayed responses. I did attempt to summarize on your SoC post, my busy schedule plus time spent crying and deleting four months of texts. . .
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Oh that’s terrible, the lot of it. I’m sorry for your recent break-up, and tears. (((hugs)))
As for your friend who texts during movies, she’s obviously not good company for people who want to WATCH the movie!
When The Mister was deployed, often IM was the way we connected, and you’ve just never fought with someone unless you’ve fought through text, with a delay. Grrrrr. Not a way to handle emotions.
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I’m not a big phone person either. If I don’t know the number, I don’t answer. I don’t always have my phone with me either. Out in public it is on silent. I like seeing what is going on around me. I rarely answer it in public either. That is what texting or voice mail is for. 🙂 lol
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So many of us non-phone people. Introverts and writers seem to avoid being phone people.
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I agree. 🙂
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I don’t have to leap on my phone as soon as I hear a beep, buzz, or chime … and I certainly don’t understand those people who do, especially when they are in a conversation with me.
If my phone rings when I’m with someone else, I apologize for the interruption and then ignore my phone.
*sigh* why have we become a society that needs to be on the phone all. the. time??
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Mmhm, mmhm, mmhm, preach it!
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