Answering machines have become a necessity in today's world of telemarketing and friends/relatives that just can't live without being on the phone twenty hours a day. Yes, I screen all calls that the caller ID (another necessity) doesn't identify as "friendly."
That old "pick up" routine will make me walk away from a call I may have answered. I hate that. If you have something to tell me, leave the message... I'll get it, eventually! Don't assume I want to talk because it's YOU.
The one technology I will not use is call waiting. You can just wait your turn. I often hang up when someone I'm talking to keeps picking up other calls.
I'm really a friendly guy, but I don't put a lot of importance on the telephone outside of what I need it for. I guess that stems from work (where I am now) where I have a bank of forty phone lines of which I must answer ten.
At home we have the wall phone in the kitchen with the answering feature and one in the den that the ringer is off most of the time. Both have caller ID. I use my cell phone for most of my calls.
Life must have been so peaceful before the telephone was invented...
) than be on the phone all the time.
