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Comment by SavantIdiot | Hacker News Reader

I'd be really curious to know how many people actually answer calls they aren't expecting, on their personal phones (e.g., non-work phones where you must answer customers).

I bet that graph is U-shaped of % of people that answer unknown messages vs. age. Kids want to be social, and old people don't know any better. With salty Gen-Xers in the middle.

99.99% of the time I let it go to voicemail. I have since the days of cassette-tape answering machines. The only time I don't is if some just texted and said they are calling. Even when my insurance company hold line asks if I want a callback, I'm too paranoid that a scammer could have infiltrated the callback process.

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I don't answer a single call unless I'm told to expect it, or I can antipate one coming (e.g. I ordered takeout and the delivery driver is gonna ping me, or I asked a recruiter to call me at X time).

If the call comes out of nowhere, or if it's from a hidden number, then I'll silence it rather than declining (i.e. hit the power button rather than actually acknowledging the call, so it carries on ringing in silence until they give up instead of being told I'm busy). If it's important they'll leave voicemail or send an email.

I just realized I can keep my phone on DND 24/7 and it's wonderful (rings for contacts only).

The bonus of it only ringing for your contacts is that when your phone does ring, you know it's something relatively important.

Completely changed my relationship with my phone.

>I'd be really curious to know how many people actually answer calls they aren't expecting

What do you do when your counterpart won't answer their phone?

I answer calls I'm not expecting when I'm expecting a call. Like from a plumber, a recruiter, a paving company, etc.

If I don't, at best I get to play phone tag, and at worst, the other person gets ticked off and I lose an opportunity. I don't like leaving voice mail, particularly the second or third time.

It would be nice if everyone legit had their main number show up to identify them, and it would be nice if they all answered their phone all day, but they don't.

I'm a Paramedic here in Northern California and we recently went on a welfare check to an apartment - us, fire dept, and law enforcement - for a family that could not get ahold of their grandmother.

Grandma was fine, fortunately, and she simply turned her phone off because it was ringing constantly with scam phone calls. She was sick of the auto warranty spam all the time, so she unplugged entirely.

The elderly are the ones that still have landlines and cell phones too, so they often get hit multiple times. It's harder for them to disconnect the landline due to things like Life Alert requiring a landline.

Medical alert devices that use cellular connections are widely available.

There going to be areas where coverage is poor, but for many people, working out of the home is going to be a considerable improvement.

They are widely available but not as common. We will run on 2-3 lifeline calls a day sometimes and while resetting them, we rarely see a wireless one.

I got a call recently about my student loans.

It was...erm...remarkable in its high production values.

Even compared to the auto warranty ones, which I don't get often, but every now and then.

I also got a "hello...hello...hello" call, and seven hangup/no message calls the same afternoon.

I assume the call I answered was a scammer, but a few months ago, I got one just like that and it turned out it was from my physician's office, and I had some trouble getting ahold of them.

> What do you do when your counterpart won't answer their phone?

I'm not sure what you mean. Like I said, if someone texts me and tells me they are calling then i'll pick up. Or if I get a voicemail saying, "duh, pick up dingus"... then i'll pick up the next buzz.

That never happens because almost no one I care about uses the phone anyway. Exvept that 0.01%.

>almost no one I care about uses the phone anyway

Right, even 80-year-olds can text these days. You're talking about personal friends who almost never call from unknown numbers.

But with professionals? Would you miss an appointment for a root canal or spend an extra day without your car because you won't answer the phone?

Ugh. Can you at least read my posts next time before you start planning your lectures? I already covered this.

I don't live in a big city or even in a super-internet-embracing country like for example South Korea - but even in my neck of the woods, dentists, doctors, vets, barber shops, car mechanics, contractors, etc. all have shifted to messaging instead of calling. Unfortunately most are using WhatsApp because of peer pressure. But I'll even swallow that bitter Zuckerberg pill because it's so much more convenient than doing appointments over the phone.

In my region of the US, people with appointments to come to me will sometimes text that they're on the way, which is nice.

And plenty of people have websites, but on the whole, most local business interactions start with a phone call, and usually it goes to voicemail or a receptionist, so I have to answer when they call me.

Even small time businesses have websites, but they don't do anything usually so it's clear you have to call.

Also, sometimes they try to embrace the Internet, and then they get hacked...

My primary care doctor had a patient data breach by their accountant. A different practice failed to set permissions propertly on the patient information on their portal, and never said anything to me, but silently scrapped it. A plumber that I had over once had all their client information stolen about six months later and vigorously spammed/phished.

Nobody has ever suggested WhatsApp to me. But I gather it's disproportionately popular in some countries.

I think WhatsApp is especially popular in countries where SMS messaging was the number one means to communicate before smartphones. No idea why WhatsApp in particular won the messenger race, I don't like it and think it's a bad piece of software even before Facebook bought it, but it seems to be "fun" enough for non-savvy people to try to get into it. And it's the same here - operating their own website and handling email is too challenging for most small businesses, doctors, or contractors. But for some reason they all manage to operate WhatsApp.

Me too. I consider it rude to be called on my phone, actually, even by people I know.

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