Maybe you already heard the results of a new study that shows 14% of cellphone calls are phony \u2013 meaning, the person on the phone is pretending to talk to someone on a non-existent other end.\u00a0 That\u2019s one in seven calls are meant to remove the user from real interpersonal contact with the excuse he has a call coming in.\u00a0 This is maybe great news for thespians, all this acting practice, but not so great for actual relationships.
\nConsider this next time the person you\u2019re in mid-sentence with suddenly breaks off for that important I-have-to-take-this-call incoming.\u00a0 Good chance they\u2019re nodding and bobbing, babbling away at the soft hum of a dial tone, pausing, listening, answering back, all to remove themselves from the great pleasure of your company.\u00a0 Course our friends wouldn\u2019t do that, just everybody else\u2019s.\u00a0 But \u2026 occasionally you might try slipping off to dial their number, see if it rings while they\u2019re in mid-chat with Harvey the Six Foot Rabbit.\u00a0 Good chance they\u2019ll just put you on hold, probably, and keep on talking.\u00a0 In the end maybe even a crummy friend is better than no friend at all.
\nDown here on the South End, we sort of expect strange behavior from our pals.\u00a0\u00a0 If we wanted Normality, we\u2019d have moved north a long time ago.\u00a0 But you ask me, anybody who answers a cellphone in the middle of our conversation, made up call or real, is sending me a message loud and clear.\u00a0 Maybe time to go weed the garden,\u00a0 let them talk without an eavesdropper.
\nStill, it\u2019s a tad troubling, this phone-call-from-the-void stuff.\u00a0 Sad enough to get solicitations from strangers with odd regional dialects, really almost alarming to chatter with nobody.\u00a0 Next thing you know they\u2019ll be doing it when they\u2019re alone.\u00a0 And before long, mark my words, they\u2019ll be writing a blog nobody reads.\u00a0 \u2026.. Uh-oh.\u00a0 Operator, I think I been cut off\u2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Maybe you already heard the results of a new study that shows 14% of cellphone calls are phony \u2013 meaning, the person on the phone is pretending to talk to someone on a non-existent other end.\u00a0 That\u2019s one in seven calls are meant to remove the user from real interpersonal contact with the excuse he […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-890","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-rantings-and-ravings"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.skeeterdaddle.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/890","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.skeeterdaddle.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.skeeterdaddle.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.skeeterdaddle.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.skeeterdaddle.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=890"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.skeeterdaddle.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/890\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":891,"href":"https:\/\/www.skeeterdaddle.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/890\/revisions\/891"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.skeeterdaddle.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=890"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.skeeterdaddle.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=890"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.skeeterdaddle.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=890"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}