This is very interesting. I did not realize this was so common. I too dislike using the phone. I have a cell phone which sometimes has zero minutes in a month. On the other hand my wife has a real problem keeping below our 700 shared minutes even though she spend Saturdays (free minutes) making one hour calls to everyone we know. I much prefer, even enjoy, e-mailing people or even typing letters to a friend to refuses to receive e-mail.
i neither cannot stand da phone. I always forget what im gonna say...
I only answer the phone if i recognize the number.
Other than that, I let it ring no matter who it could be.
I tell you what though, since i'm home all day and those telemarketer ****ers always ring at the same time.
Yea! People who share my feeling about phones.
I'm not a big fan of the telephone. (Although my monthly cell phone bill might suggest otherwise.) But I have to use it for business.
It's funny, but like someone said in an earlier post, you would almost think an aspie would be great on the phone because there's no face-to-face. But it's still very hard.
I also write down what I want to say if it's a business call. It keeps me focused on the "mission" of the call and helps ensure that I'll hang up with the right information.
But worse for me than an actual conversation.... is the answering machine! THIS is when having everything written is most important. Otherwise, I'll ramble on and on -- and fear I've sounded like a complete idiot by the time I hang up. The answering services with the "review message" feature have saved my life a couple of times.
When I'm going to be out of the office and have to leave an "away" message, it takes me an average of three tries to get it right. Do you also find it difficult to leave messages?
I once got some of my hair pulled out because my I refused to call and order pizza and another time I got pushed off a chair and beat with it because I wouldn't call the bank. All I know is that that never helped me overcome my fear of talking on the phone.
It did happen to be in my home on both occasions, but you know that was my brother and he's on the other side of the world now so everything's cool
Recently, I have been working on a list and descriptions of my Aspie qualities. Coincidentally, I had these two paragraphs already typed up. They are just right for this thread. I would like to know if there is anyone else out there who has no desire for a cell phone.
Telephone Anxiety
Stemming from my difficulty with conversation, I have had a telephone anxiety that I am gradually overcoming. At first, I was afraid the other person would find me boring or too rote if I called for some simple information rather than chatting for an extended time. I have since gotten anxious over the high probability that I would have to leave a message, thus initiating a sequence of “phone tag.” Furthermore, I am afraid I would word something incorrectly or forget to mention something important in my message and would have to call again to correct the information content. I believe email is much better suited to non-immediate information exchange. With email, I can accurately relay my thoughts, edit my words to perfection, and there are no uncertainties with whether I would be talking to a person or a machine, and I do not have to inconveniently wait by the phone for a return call.
My Anti-Cell-Phone Policy
I refuse to own a cell phone. Over the years, I have seen the evil that cell phones have become. At any given time in a public place, I can see several people using cell phones. Cell phones do not bring about wireless freedom. A wireless connection is still a connection. People have become slaves to connectivity, decreased privacy, and increased aggravation brought about by interrupting phone calls and text messages, poor quality sound, unreliable wireless connection, and calling plans complicated by too many options and too many competing service providers. I find life is complicated enough without cell phones. And what about emergencies? If necessary, I can surely depend on someone else’s cell phone to make an emergency call. Under normal circumstances, I do not need a cell phone. I don’t even have a regular telephone at my residence. I like my privacy to be pure. The true freedom of remote electronic communication lies in the ability for all parties to correspond via email [or in this case, forum posts] at their most convenient respective times.