Lately when I’ve listened to various old people’s music, I’ve thought more than I probably ought too much about the way telephones used to weave so much into popular music, and how younger people just have no idea about what the authors were signing about.
It’s all YOUR fault I screen my phone calls.
CALL ME! On the line. You can call me anytime.
In the modern era of social media, you can just block people. Or, even more passive-aggressively, mute people.
But, no, in my experience, a phone call provides a lot of opportunities to straighten out any issues.
Speaking with someone else is incredibly important. There was a long argicle this morning in The FP by Chris Arnade talking about the importance of walking around cities, and meeting other people.
STFW for TFAuthor…..
The other end of Gen X; as close to Boomer as I am to Millennial. Perspective.
So much can be accomplished by just speaking to another person.
But so many people don’t ever do that anymore.
As I was trying to rework my MetroAccess ride yesterday, I ran into similar issues.
Could I tell the driver that, no, my appointment was just cancelled, and he should he should just take me home? (The doctor got caught in an emergency situation. Which is fine. I understand. It happens. And I’m happy that her PA called to tell me).
So he dropped off the other rider, pulled to the side of the road to let me navigate through the weird phone system just to speak to someone who could program the driver’s computer to let him take me home.
This required, no kidding, three-plus minutes of waiting for all the options to be play.
Part of the reason I ended up, again, at Georgetown for my care is that I got sick of dealing with the phone system at another research university in DC. Hmm. I saw this doc at Georgetown before. Maybe she’s accepting new patients. Yep. And I’ve been very happy with the care I’ve gotten from them.
But this morning I got a strange call about a similar circumstance to this. It was a bill that hadn’t been paid. It happens. Did I get a phone call about it? Nah, that’d be too easy. Let’s just sell it off to a collections agency.
I understand the benefits many get from face-to-face communication. Maybe for many that’s better than speaking. But I’m nearly blind. I can still listen and speak.
If there’s a problem, call me.
Really, speaking to someone else is not dangerous. Do it.
My email to the person responsible might be causing intense fear…
Please give me a call sometime Monday so we can discuss.
No, if you’d done that first, we wouldn’t be in this situation.