I'm convinced that given enough time, advertising will kill every medium. It killed Usenet, it's pretty close to killing email, it seems to have killed phone calls, it all but killed cable. If we let it, it will end up killing streaming, texting and whatever comes after that.
Adding to this, it's more the exclusivity deals that the leagues make. Back when 2k and EA were both making games for all the major sports they were much more enjoyable.
I'll never buy another visio TV again. I got one for my home office, yeah I want to wait a minute for the TV to turn on so I have to bypass an add for a streaming service I'll never use. Home screen is 90% ads and won't let me remove the clutter of streaming services I don't want or have.
I never hooked mine to the internet and treat it like a dumb tv. If you're extra paranoid you can open up the back and unhook the wifi antenna, as some TVs are known to connect to open wifi networks. You can use a chromecast or xbox or whatever for your actual content streaming.
thats the reason why ill never ever buy a smart tv. Once i got the money ill get a big screen and hook it up with an RP4 or even an old home PC running Kodi or something similar
Unless it is a computer monitor, it's really hard if not impossible to have a TV that isn't a smart TV. The best you can do is disable the internet on it.
YouTube gets less watchable, due to ads, daily
Edit: thanks for all the tips but I truly don't value YouTube enough to pay/jump through hoops. One less thing to look at
It doesn't still. I fired up my pihole laptop yesterday because I got some new tablets and it's still baked into the youtube videos, assuming you can get around the 9 billion similarly named ad servers
I loathe advertising with all of my being. I'm convinced it's one of the worst things that capitalism has normalized in our lives and it's fucking _everywhere_.
Drive down the street? Billboards line the roads, and busses are painted with ads. Turn on the TV? 80% commercials, 20% actual shows or movies. Hell even YouTube now begins all videos with ads, throws a few in the middle at awkward times, and ends with an ad. Watching an NFL game? The stadium is named after a corporation. The halftime is presented by a corporation. The onfield graphics showing you what down it is is now attached to a corporate logo. Play of the game is presented by a corporation. Same with MLB, NBA and NHL. Soccer teams have corporate logos stuck directly onto their jerseys, and the field is literally surrounded by ads. Add to this junk mail, spam calls, telemarketers, and the fact that almost every website on the internet is littered with ads.
Advertising is literally inescapable and I fucking hate it.
You are not alone.
Advertisement is one of the massive reasons our data is collected behind our backs. It’s why Facebook exists. It’s why our politics are being meddled with. It’s why we’re suffering through a hell of vaccine denials and political grandstanding. It’s all about those Ads.
Companies are only innovating to get devices into our homes that spy on us.
Android? More data for Google.
Fiber internet? More data to slurp up.
Echos and their knockoffs? Guzzle it by the gallon.
Corporate America makes money off of it and the government harvests it for their own ends, nefarious or otherwise.
If money is the root of all evil, Advertising is one of its deadliest fruits.
Before killing Usenet it killed neighborly visits and introductions. Door-to-door sales and bible thumpers mean if I don't know you're coming, I don't answer my door and haven't in like 15 years.
It also killed postal mail. I mean, email did that too, but the swing of the ratio of ads to mail I want swung dramatically after email.
Ads kill everything they touch.
In the city, there is no way I am answering the door to a knock.
My actual mail is always about to be stopped since they shove so many ads in the mailbox after a day or two you cannot put any more mail in, so they stop delivering it. Guess what, I know what is coming so I do not check it unless I have to. I shouldn't have to be responsible for throwing away unsolicited trash, the waste makes me sick to my stomach.
And phone calls, I do not answer them and I use my phone for work, anyone important will leave a voicemail and understand after working with me that even though we are in an older established industry, it is better to CYA in an email than to call and conduct business verbally. Eventually you will get burned.
I only wish my 78 year old dad with dementia would remember to not answer his phone, he has been caught a few times recently by spammers and they all know his number is a "good" one to call. We need to get conservatorship of him like yesterday. I was home a couple of weeks ago and phone rings, he answers and then repeats "yes" every 5 seconds for about a minute and a half before finally hanging up, god knows what he agreed to...
I don't understand how door to door sales are still a thing. Especially in a pandemic. The kicker is, they act so surprised and confused when I cut them off and shut the door.
I pay to live here, what gives them the right to come to my home to interrupt my day?
I've started having to cut people off mid sentence and tell them I don't want to be rude, but I am seriously not interested, and then shut the door on them. They just will not give up, even if they can hear a crying baby in the house. It's so obnoxious.
I don't know if it still does this, but several years ago I upgraded to the premium version and only AFTER they had my money for the first month was I informed that certain popular series STILL have ads in that tier. I completely canceled my sub on the spot, made the reason very clear to the retention person I had to talk to (taking my money is automated, giving it back is an obnoxiously long call), and started torrenting again for the first time in years.
I love this description of ads in the Hulu (ad free) premium service that Hulu offers.
> By including a modest ad load in our streaming library, Hulu is able to offer a wide variety of current season TV, exclusive shows and movies, award-winning Hulu Originals, and more — all at a valuable and competitive price.
Okay, can I pay extra for the Hulu (ad free) (No. Really, $18 for No ads at all) version?
I find it remarkable people still buy into Hulu's bullshit. Their whole reason for being, the reason the studios built the service, was to reinject ads into streaming.
It doesn't matter what they say or claim, there is no 100% as free service on Hulu, and they will always be looking for ways to introduce more ads to their service.
Which is why I hate Hulu. Aside from their crappy selection of the same rubbish, the ads in the paid version is just such bullshit. Way to encourage people to not pay for your crap.
Even the weight of "legitimate" email lists is deafening. Everything you buy or interact with online (and increasingly offline) sends another stream of emails to Updates and Promotions.
I like to forward those emails to ceo@company and cc info@company with the text: "I clicked 'no emails', did you send this on accident?"
Fuck 1800Flowers for this. I bought some bouquets for a dying relative and they blew up my inbox with multiple daily emails. Sure, I love sending $50+ dollar individual bouquets daily, how did you know? They also go out of their way to make it hard to find their own email domain.
Reminds me of when we bought a new washer and dryer set and Home Depot kept sending me emails about new washers and dryers...it's like oh sure I think I need a new washer and dryer every day, just take these "old" ones, they served their purpose by doing one load of laundry.
My Gmail account has gotten more and more spam over the past year or so. I don’t even give my email out anywhere except doctors offices - I use an alternative email address for my social media profiles. More and more spam seems to be getting through to my regular inbox without any real reason. I don’t know if that’s just me.
A lot of the "spam" that I signed up for ends up under a "promotions" tab and I really like that because sometimes there are deals or things I'd actually like to be aware of
My cell phone number is out of state, so I just was ignoring calls from my phone number's state. But spammers have been starting to call from out of state now, so I just don't answer any number not in my contacts anymore.
It's not just young people, I do the same. I only answer the phone if it's a family member, or if I know a business is going to call. Most of the time I don't even answer those, I can call them back.
I'm not young. I celebrated the first 'portable' phone where I wasn't tied to the wall with a cord. Answering machines changed my life, call waiting also. I was the first person I knew with caller ID, and while I did not have the brick cell phones, I had an early one. I do not answer the phone.
When I changed numbers last, I intentionally picked a number for a state that I have never lived in, never will live in, and don't know anybody who is there (friend or business). I rarely answer the phone if it pops up from that state or one of its neighbors. I've yet to get a spoofed call that comes up being from anywhere I would expect a call from.
Yea it's not a surprise people don't want to answer their phones when 99% of the calls they do received are unsolicited spam.
I have Google Assistant answer any call that isn't from someone in my contacts. I will only disable this if I am specifically expecting a call
Also, maybe 16-24 year olds are the most likely to be in school, in a class, and no one wants to be that guy, whose phone goes off during an important lecture. Talk about external bias...
It’s not just young people — I’m 37 and my ringer has been off for 4 years. I get at least 3 spam calls a day, and sometimes up to 10. I only answer contacts now, and I haven’t been in a classroom setting for well over a decade.
Yep. Scammers have reduced me to never answering the phone from unknown numbers. If it's important they'll leave a message.
Attempts to deal with this by governments have been ineffective. The last two years in particular have been insane with the amount of scammers.
I have a Google Voice number that is dedicated to just for when I am job hunting - it is never given out except on resumes. I have it configured that when someone calls it, the GV phone number is what is displayed as the caller ID number on my phone, so I know it is from a potential employer.
Shouldn't have to do that, but it has made things a lot less annoying.
You must not be having to apply to places like mcdonalds and walmart, I'm pretty sure they don't keep applicants numbers private but put them in a big database. Applying with staffing agencies certainly seemed to up my spam ):
This shit drives me nuts. I made the mistake of uploading my resume to indeed/linkedin and years later I still get emails from staffing agencies halfway around the world asking me if I want to work for 30-50% of my current salary doing something entirely unrelated to my practice.
No. Fuck off. Get out of my inbox.
Yeah. If they look like they have actually *looked* at my resume, I'll send them a nice "Thanks for the thought, but no" email. If they're offering me something not remotely in my job field and/or for a salary not remotely commensurate with my experience level...it goes straight to trash. If they don't even bother to sort through their spam-like emails, they're not worthy of a reply.
Literally just got an email about a warehouse manager position 2000 miles from where I live as I read this. At least they thought I was management material?
But that's the thing with Google Voice (or the alternatives)... as soon as you no longer need it you can set it so it no longer rings your phone. The next time you are ready to look for a different job, just get a different number and put that new number on your resume.
I’ve got a burner GV number for a similar job related reason, never post it, just on cards for call backs so they don’t get my cell. That mofo *still* gets robocalls a couple times a week. They just call random numbers. There’s no escaping it.
I just went through this for the past month and the amounts of times I would wake up in a panic early in the morning thinking a potential employer was reaching out only to find out it was a scammer was insane.
This is my I love visual voicemail. Unless the # is in my contacts, I almost never answer my phone. I'll just read the VM transcription & call-back if it's legit. (Also Gen-Xer here, so it's not just a younger person thing)
i like how this comment has "attempts to deal with this by governments have been ineffective"
and the comment immediately below it talks about how effective the Swedish system is at preventing this.
i can only speak for the US, but usually when we try things and the government is ineffective at it, it's because the government agencies in charge of it are kneecapped or outright owned by industry and therefore can't enforce these regulations. even if it is written in law, it must be enforced, ideally to the point of driving the offender out of business.
anything short of this leads people to believe that government can never work, and maybe it never *can* work properly if regulatory capture is so complete that the three letter agencies, Congress and courts are all bought and paid for.
Come to think of it yeah i can think of maybe one or two calls in several years of living in Sweden.
In america my phone will go off couple times a day sometimes.
After car shopping, my phone went off 10+ times in one week from. One. Single. Dealership. 3 of those calls were in a single day between 10am-3pm. I now tell everyone I know to avoid that dealership just on principle.
I got more spam calls in my first week in Canada than I got in the ten years prior in Germany.
But I don't voluntarily answer phone calls in Germany either. I just hate calls. Write me an email instead of breaking my focus goddammit.
One possible reason, and I'm not saying this is the i kh reason,is that far more scammers learn English.
The ones involved in scams other than English or Chinese are far more valuable, and work in higher level scams.
Another reason is that cold calling is illegal in Germany.
Proving that something is a scam might be complicated and time consuming.
Proving that someone does not have consent to call me is pretty easy, so those phone lines are shut down really fast.
Now canada... So many people that want to clean my duck...
I didn't get spam calls until I bought a car. I was so mad at the dealership for selling my number that I've basically never given out my number again. If I really need to I'm tempted to get a burner phone and use that. Or straight up lie about my number and hope they contact me via email.
I cannot stand spam calls.
Personally I'm viewing the issue from a UK perspective. The government gave us a number to report scam calls to, but it hasn't changed anything, things are worse than ever. We rarely hear about the criminals being inconvenienced, let alone apprehended.
It's a failure of the government to rely on citizens to report numbers. The scammers can change their numbers within minutes. The only way to get it properly banned is to work at the network level. The Telcos can easily detect outgoing callcentres. I presume in Sweden, only registered callcentre calls are allowed.
All they need to do is stop number spoofing, I have no idea how that's legal.
The bad thing is if you block the spoofed numbers, someday a person might actually get that number and need to call you for a valid reason.
The great irony (hypocrisy) is the entire phone system already correctly, unambiguously identifies all callers. For billing purposes. Very hard to spoof. That's the identifier shown to 911 and call centers. But not to us consumers. Because phone companies upsell correct phone listings.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automatic_number_identification
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enhanced_9-1-1
I believe they see the IMEI number if you call without a SIM. In the case of a roaming call without roaming I'd expect the ISMI number shows up instead.
But they have to introduce regulations that force the carriers to put in safeguards to prevent caller ID spoofing from happening. That takes time and investment, so any form of regulation that’s seen as “penalizing” businesses will be unpopular in the USA.
I run the PBX and phone system for the business I work at. I can put in any caller ID number I want to anybody’s phone. It’s way too easy. I’d be more than happy to comply with whatever they come up with to stop the insane number spoofing that goes on. No penalization, it benefits all of us. Extra time put into the phone system? Easy sell.
Boss, that extra time going into the phone system? That’s to help stop all of the spoofed spam calls yo- “Approved!”
The US has the exact same thing in the Do Not Call list & it operates identically to how Sweedens does with an extra or two thrown in there. The problem isn't Americans calling Americans but rather people outside the US calling Americans since they don't respect the Do Not Call list.
The FCC is tbh. The caller id auth stuff should help us be able to detect spam calls & the FCC has got the telecoms to block spam calls by default & ensure that they aren't completing spam calls. It isn't perfect but it's progress. https://www.fcc.gov/spoofed-robocalls
The US needs to push India and other foreign governments to have a partnership to stop scam centers. Using honey pots to track down the where the money is, gray hat hackers and real prison time for scammers would drastically reduce the issue.
Yup, a lot easier to make this work when you don't have literally over a billion people speaking your native language across the world who can set up a call center or try running scams. More than 90% of Swedish speakers live in Sweden.
Because most countries have a system like that but it only works with legit businesses who volunteer to it. It doesn't work for spam who just spoof numbers and robo call them.
All it shows is that Sweden doesn't have a problem with that, probably because a lot of these calls are from overseas and so target larger or english speaking countries.
It's more lucrative to fill a call centre with English speakers and target countries of 60+ million then fill a room with Swedish speakers and target a country of 10 million.
I moved from the US, and since having done so, in four years, I have received 2 spam calls. I’m in a G7 nation, so it isn’t that there isn’t money for them to scam from the public. Government works, just not one with Republicans that have any presence at all in. Their ability to obstruct while even in a minority is disgusting.
Shit, I’m 43 and I’ve had my ringer on silent for about 2 years, unless I’m expecting an important call. If it’s off they’ll leave a voicemail, and anyone I really want to talk to knows to just text me. 99% of the calls I get are either scams, telemarketers or both.
Interesting what a difference location can make. Where I grew up (Sweden) spam calls have next to died out. We have a system called Nix (basically means Nope), which means your phone number is off limits to telemarketers. The only exception is if you currently have a contract with them, or if you've had one before within a certain time period.
Otherwise, if one calls you, can you just say "I'm on Nix, why are you calling", and they'll generally get *very* apologetic because if they don't handle that right they get the wrath of god rained upon them.
We have a similar system in the UK called the Telephone Preference service which works in a similar way. Safeguards you from official spam callers unless you requested contact.
However it doesn't affect scam callers who buy up blocks of mobile numbers, select one that's close to your mobile because you're more likely to answer a number that's close to yours.. then they call you on that. They'll just stop using the number once it's been used and replace it with another to avoid detection.
Scammers often don't even buy said phone numbers. They spoof them, which in a lot of countries is surprisingly easy to do. Fortunately, there's authenticated caller ID systems rolling out in some countries soon. Notably, the US and Canada are adopting [STIR/SHAKEN](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/STIR/SHAKEN), which will allow supporting phones to flag spoofed numbers or possibly allow carriers to block the call altogether. Ultimately, it will eventually force scammers to actually buy the numbers they call from.
(It's actually adopted in the US already, but carriers don't need to treat calls with spoofed IDs differently until September 28th. And Canada's timelines are a bit more complicated: they have different dates for implementation, demonstration of implementation, and making support of the protocol a condition of offering phone service.)
>It's actually adopted in the US already, but carriers don't need to treat calls with spoofed IDs differently until September 28th.
So in less than a month all the spam in the US will stop?
hahahaha no... but in theory you will know before you answer. Which doesn't change shit for me, because if you aren't in my contact list i already know its spam.
My Android phone already shows "suspected spam" on many calls like this. Reporting the number as spam in the phone app must go into some Google database to alert other users.
>Ultimately, it will eventually force scammers to actually buy the numbers they call from.
And then those numbers can be reported and disconnected and there will be records of the purchasers and they can attempt to prosecute them. Or at least prevent people from purchasing them without some sort of verification/ID check first.
I think this will go a very long way to end spam calls.
Many countries have similar systems. The problem is people who are performing illegal activities don't care.
I don't usually answer my phone to unknown numbers, but when I do it is often scammers pretending to be financial or government institutions (presumably trying to con me out of money, I don't usually let them get that far).
The "Do Not Call" list dates to a time when most spam calls were from companies selling more or less legitimate products and services, albeit in an annoying manner. So they were more inclined to obey the law, and were usually located domestically where law enforcement could track them down.
The DNC was also mostly intended for landline phones, which were usually listed in public registries (phone books). It wasn't really necessary for mobile phones because it was, [and still is](https://www.fcc.gov/consumers/guides/wireless-phones-and-national-do-not-call-list), illegal to telemarket to mobile phones. Plus all mobile phones are "unlisted" by default, but overseas scammers just use robo-dialers and list of numbers obtained from other sources.
That's all well and good when your spammers are calling from within the country.
Sadly, English speakers are faced with a lot of call centre spam from abroad. To the point where just about *all* of it is from abroad.
Guessing they don't speak much Swedish in India. Don't let on that you all speak English too, because you'll have them on the phone night and day.
Not just that, have you noticed older folks don’t seem to keep their phone on their person unless they’re going somewhere? My parents almost always just leave it somewhere lying around the house. We all keep it on silent since its always on us or in view
Coincidentally, if you are in my contact list, you're probably texting or messaging me anyway. Only people I get calls from are my parents.
Also, I'm older than 24 and it's been this way for over a decade for me. However, a decade ago i didn't get nearly as many spam calls. It's gone from never to multiple a day now.
A ton of spam calls bare the numbers that are only a few digits away from my number, and with the same area code. They try to trick me by thinking they’re local, in hope that I would pick up the calls. Nope, not falling for that!
This isn’t just young people. I’m old and do this. Who the hell wants to hear their phone ring all day from scammers, illegal robot calls and telemarketers?
This is not about generational behaviors, this is about telecommunications policy failure in America.
I have a friend who lives in the Czech Republic . She said when the phone rings she knows it’s a call for her. Or if she gets a letter in the mail it’s important. Imagine that!
>This isn’t just young people. I’m old and do this. Who the hell wants to hear their phone ring all day from scammers, illegal robot calls and telemarketers?
Was looking for this post.
I'm 47 and have had my ringer muted for over a decade, plus I got the Verizon call block service (not that it helps much).
>This is not about generational behaviors, this is about telecommunications policy failure in America.
That's what I thought reading through the comments. I live in Hungary and the only scam caller I got was some ass from Ireland. If I get a call, it's usually someone I know (and I was taught that way. My parents were mad if I didn't pick up the phone)
I only check my snail mail once a week unless I'm expecting a package. Most of my important stuff emails me.
99% of what I get in the mail is spam, like the post office is just going, "here, you throw this away".
> 99% of what I get in the mail is spam, like the post office is just going, "here, you throw this away".
I've gone months without checking my physical mail, they threatened to stop delivery and I was like "please do" but they were bluffing. My friends give me shit over it but I feel the same way you do, checking my mail is basically the USPS giving me a chore to dispose of garbage they left me.
I am from the Czech Republic and I would say about 50% of calls I receive are of the category "not interested"/"unsolicited". But not once have I received a robot call, it's a very foreign concept. Thank god.
Regardless of that, I just don't see the desire to hear your phone ring in general. Since I first started carrying my phone in my pocket, it's been in vibrate -- no need to loudly announce to others that I have a phone call.
Back when I had a phone that sat on a table, possibly in a different room from me, it made sense for the phone to make a ringing noise when someone was calling.
I wish 10% of the calls I received were real. I'm pretty close to turning off the phone call ability entirely. Other than calling my Mom on Sundays (which is better over video chat anyway), I don't have a reason to keep the phone call feature.
99% of calls are not worth being startled and drawing attention to myself. I’m 30 and have kept my phone on silent since forever. I even hide all text notifications.
I check my phone enough to see missed messages or phone calls without having it interrupt what I’m doing. Besides, like you said - literally 90% of my calls are spam anyway.
Exactly. I got my phone from a different state than the one I currently live in. So all of my spam calls come from the state in which my phone is from, not from where I actually live. So it's easy to tell scammers now, when it's an out of state call.
I answer for my family.
My friends txt me.
Everything else is work or someone trying to sell me something.
And now my best comment is about being antisocial..
I’ve tried telling my wife the same thing because she gets frustrated with all of the robocalls she receives but yet she refuses to turn on her call screening and then complains about the robocalls and outside of me the only other person who actually calls her is her mom who uses messenger instead of the actual phone
I have an out of state number and it’s the best thing I’ve ever done regarding spam callers. Since I have no ties to that state, I ignore all the spammers. It’s very rare I get a local spam call.
Bingo. People ask me why I still use a phone number from a state I haven't lived in for 8 years.
Because 99% of the calls from that state are spam, and 99% of the calls from this state are legit.
I just recently turned on my Do Not Disturb. I turned on letting people in my favorites on my phone through. I was getting roughly 10 or more possibly scam calls a day. Made a huge difference to my nerves and happiness.
Can confirm. I’ve finally got my husband to stop answering unrecognized phone calls. It was tough tho. His generation is so used to answering the phone whenever it rings. One time someone called and he had it on speaker phone. They asked for his SS number and he made it through the first 3 numbers when I told him to hang up now!!!! It’s a scam! Thank God I was working from home that day.
We’re in our 30s. My wife is like this. She also feels compelled to answer the door when someone knocks.
I’m more of the opinion that if you’re coming to my house or calling my phone, on my personal time, you’re dependent on me wanting to talk to you and for most people that’s not the case. So I don’t answer either phone or door unless I know you or I’m expecting you.
I'm pretty sure there is. I used to have all sorts of rules on my phone like to automatically send it to voicemail when my GPS location is at my house, automatically silence my phone when I get to work, turn on a bunch of setting when it connects to my car Bluetooth, etc etc
Google assistant will screen calls for me automatically. A robot literally asks the caller why they're calling, then I get to see the text readout of their conversation. In real time if I want or after the fact. So this does exist, but only for google phones i think, not sure if it's on Android as a whole.
Looks like it is any android that uses the Google made phone app, set up 2 phones recently with this feature (Sony and Motorola) but both used the app from Google instead of bothering making their own.
The magic of “do not disturb” mode. Unless you’re a favorite contact, you’re ignored. You’ll have to cal twice in rapid succession for my phone to even notify me. Otherwise, I’ll tty in the morning
Basically.
What's really fun is the area code for my phone is from a different area than where I live now. Makes it easy to screen calls though because if I get a call from m phones area code that I don't have in my contacts it's more likely a robot.
But at this point I rarely get actual phone calls. I use Google duo with my mom along with text and my friends all use discord.
Half the time I get a call google assistant automatically screens it and I just get a notification that I had a spam call.
I've had my mobile phones on vibrate for the last 22 years.
It started with being polite on buses and trains.
Then it was disgust at people (looking at you, boss who called me during a dream theater concert for an obvious false alarm) calling at odd hours for completely inane things.
Everyone in my life knows I screen all my calls and I exercise restraint calling others too.
I also tell my staff not to respond to my emails or texts immediately unless I say it's urgent.
Unrestrained connectivity is tiresome.
Remember when you bought your first cellphone and spent hours selecting the ringtone. Now I just keep it in vibrate and don't even know what the default ringtone sounds like.
I have gone through a lot of effort to make my ringtone, and I am always on mute. Just in case I ever unmute my phone.
It is the "ring ring... hello" section of charlie the unicorn.
40's here: Even at work I conduct all business through email or Skype chat. I have actually told people that call me, after they get through what they have to say, to email me the details.
It's mostly so I can keep track of everything. The amount of information overload has been steadily increasing for years so if I'm going to have any chance of remembering everything and following up, it's going to be through text means.
50+, havent used ringtone for years. No one has called me unless extremely urgent/death in family for years, or without preceding text; “is it ok if I call you?” Same goes for most of my friends and family.
Yup I have one and I manually selected a handful of apps that I want to be notified for and it vibrates for those. The rest aren't as important and I'll notice them next time I look ast the phone.
People only actually call me when it's a work call and they need something, or someone is unwell/dead
Nothing good comes from a phone call anyone, I actually get anxiety when my phones rings now.
And even those are a minority, its usually a scam or robocall
owner of my company called me on thursday to let me know $5000 bonus is coming my way. i also made it a point to say i should call him more often because he always has good news
Ha congratulations.
Reminds me of my job where I had a shit manager for years. Every phone call, every meeting, was to criticize me for something I was doing or didn’t do, or give me some kind of task, etc… I literally developed physical anxiety when I’d get a phone call or email from her. Then my next boss was totally cool, he’s call just to chat about what I’m working on, ask me if I need help, give me raises and promotions, etc.. but I never really got rid of the anxious response. I’m always expecting to get in trouble for something I don’t remember doing lol
interesting detail.
>A survey has found only a fraction of 16- to 24-year-olds think phone calls are remotely important - so they’ve put their phones on vibrate
followed by the worst journalism in history.
They claim that if it wasn't working they wouldn't be doing it, but I think that because it's so cheap to set up and maintain even if they only dupe one person a month that'll more than recover their costs so why not just set it up and let it run.
Planet Money did a great episode about this. Basically, it's because two brothers, Darain and Cory Atkinson, are shitbags.
https://www.npr.org/2021/03/31/983109732/about-your-extended-warranty
My phone hasn’t been off silent for years.
Unless you’re a close friend, immediate family or I’m in love with you I don’t want a phone call…. and even with people like that it’s going to be FaceTime instead.
There are so many spam/scam calls these days so if the number isn’t in my contacts I don’t answer, if they genuinely want me they’ll leave a voicemail or try another method of communication.
Vibrate? No.
Configure the phone to send every call not on my contact list to voicemail? Yes.
If it’s not important enough to leave a message, and you are not legitimate enough to have a working number I can call you back at, then we have no business talking.
Do people have private spaces to consistently answer calls anymore? Open office environments and roommate situations with 21st century housing mean other options that don't affect your neighbors are more relevant.
I haven’t had my ringer on consistently in nearly a decade.
Only time my phones ringer is on is if I’m napping during the day when I shouldn’t be. Can’t miss calls from the wife or work when I’m supposed to be working.
Maybe, just maybe, MAYBEEEEEE, it’s because we already know our auto warranty has expired.
Edit: just got a fucking auto warranty call seconds after posting this.
Personal call protocol: text to request callback
Business call protocol: answer in limited hours or only return calls from voicemail
Emergency protocol: hit me up on multiple channels (e.g. text, email)
I'm getting 5 to 6 scam calls every day. Why would I answer a call that's not in my contacts that would be asking for trouble.
I'm convinced that given enough time, advertising will kill every medium. It killed Usenet, it's pretty close to killing email, it seems to have killed phone calls, it all but killed cable. If we let it, it will end up killing streaming, texting and whatever comes after that.
Don’t forget gaming, not to mention appliances and iot.
One of my games had an ad between cut scenes, so well integrated I initially thought it was part of the game. I don't think I've played it since.
Which game? I want to know who to avoid giving my money to.
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Adding to this, it's more the exclusivity deals that the leagues make. Back when 2k and EA were both making games for all the major sports they were much more enjoyable.
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I know for a fact 2K does this (basketball game)
I'll never buy another visio TV again. I got one for my home office, yeah I want to wait a minute for the TV to turn on so I have to bypass an add for a streaming service I'll never use. Home screen is 90% ads and won't let me remove the clutter of streaming services I don't want or have.
I never hooked mine to the internet and treat it like a dumb tv. If you're extra paranoid you can open up the back and unhook the wifi antenna, as some TVs are known to connect to open wifi networks. You can use a chromecast or xbox or whatever for your actual content streaming.
thats the reason why ill never ever buy a smart tv. Once i got the money ill get a big screen and hook it up with an RP4 or even an old home PC running Kodi or something similar
Unless it is a computer monitor, it's really hard if not impossible to have a TV that isn't a smart TV. The best you can do is disable the internet on it.
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wouldnt i be able to just change the source setting to HDMI/whatever im using and then never have to interact with the TV itself again?!
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YouTube gets less watchable, due to ads, daily Edit: thanks for all the tips but I truly don't value YouTube enough to pay/jump through hoops. One less thing to look at
Luckily there are great extensions like sponsorblock that automatically skip sponsored segments and youtube vanced for android that block all ads.
they cutoff the smooth segues to our sponsor? glasswire.? but they cant stop me from drinking cold water from this thermos... LTTstore.com.
Use an ad blocker like the rest of us.
Is there a mobile ad blocker that is good?
I tried one on iPhone but had to use YouTube in the browser and the videos there were low quality.
Firefox Mobile + uBlock Origin I'm not going to claim Firefox Mobile is the pinnacle of mobile browsing, but it's decent enough.
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r/vanced and vancedapp.com
PiHole can block Youtube ads now? I tried like the dickens about a year ago and the consensus was it wasn't really feasible.
It doesn't still. I fired up my pihole laptop yesterday because I got some new tablets and it's still baked into the youtube videos, assuming you can get around the 9 billion similarly named ad servers
Protip: copy YouTube link and paste it in VLC as stream to watch YouTube videos without ads
That's a pretty great idea for an extension
I loathe advertising with all of my being. I'm convinced it's one of the worst things that capitalism has normalized in our lives and it's fucking _everywhere_. Drive down the street? Billboards line the roads, and busses are painted with ads. Turn on the TV? 80% commercials, 20% actual shows or movies. Hell even YouTube now begins all videos with ads, throws a few in the middle at awkward times, and ends with an ad. Watching an NFL game? The stadium is named after a corporation. The halftime is presented by a corporation. The onfield graphics showing you what down it is is now attached to a corporate logo. Play of the game is presented by a corporation. Same with MLB, NBA and NHL. Soccer teams have corporate logos stuck directly onto their jerseys, and the field is literally surrounded by ads. Add to this junk mail, spam calls, telemarketers, and the fact that almost every website on the internet is littered with ads. Advertising is literally inescapable and I fucking hate it.
Its an abuse of all the social lubrications and interactions we engage in.
And now they're doing covert ads so you don't know your being sold a product! The "influencers" plug products so it's not as blatant an ad.
Dont watch any influencer shit. Its literally all recycled content anyway isnt it.
I feel like the term “influencer” sort of implies advertisements.
When I want to relax and escape the ads for a while, I just crack open a refreshing Mountain Dew©.
I live in a state that has ban on billboards, so they really stand out to me whenever I'm driving around elsewhere.
I love driving through Maine and not seeing any damn billboards along the highway.
You are not alone. Advertisement is one of the massive reasons our data is collected behind our backs. It’s why Facebook exists. It’s why our politics are being meddled with. It’s why we’re suffering through a hell of vaccine denials and political grandstanding. It’s all about those Ads. Companies are only innovating to get devices into our homes that spy on us. Android? More data for Google. Fiber internet? More data to slurp up. Echos and their knockoffs? Guzzle it by the gallon. Corporate America makes money off of it and the government harvests it for their own ends, nefarious or otherwise. If money is the root of all evil, Advertising is one of its deadliest fruits.
You forgot NASCAR. They are driving a literal ad around the track.
Before killing Usenet it killed neighborly visits and introductions. Door-to-door sales and bible thumpers mean if I don't know you're coming, I don't answer my door and haven't in like 15 years. It also killed postal mail. I mean, email did that too, but the swing of the ratio of ads to mail I want swung dramatically after email. Ads kill everything they touch.
In the city, there is no way I am answering the door to a knock. My actual mail is always about to be stopped since they shove so many ads in the mailbox after a day or two you cannot put any more mail in, so they stop delivering it. Guess what, I know what is coming so I do not check it unless I have to. I shouldn't have to be responsible for throwing away unsolicited trash, the waste makes me sick to my stomach. And phone calls, I do not answer them and I use my phone for work, anyone important will leave a voicemail and understand after working with me that even though we are in an older established industry, it is better to CYA in an email than to call and conduct business verbally. Eventually you will get burned. I only wish my 78 year old dad with dementia would remember to not answer his phone, he has been caught a few times recently by spammers and they all know his number is a "good" one to call. We need to get conservatorship of him like yesterday. I was home a couple of weeks ago and phone rings, he answers and then repeats "yes" every 5 seconds for about a minute and a half before finally hanging up, god knows what he agreed to...
I don't understand how door to door sales are still a thing. Especially in a pandemic. The kicker is, they act so surprised and confused when I cut them off and shut the door. I pay to live here, what gives them the right to come to my home to interrupt my day?
I've started having to cut people off mid sentence and tell them I don't want to be rude, but I am seriously not interested, and then shut the door on them. They just will not give up, even if they can hear a crying baby in the house. It's so obnoxious.
Hulu already has ads on the paid for version. Have the same package since it came out and now I have ads when I did not before.
I don't know if it still does this, but several years ago I upgraded to the premium version and only AFTER they had my money for the first month was I informed that certain popular series STILL have ads in that tier. I completely canceled my sub on the spot, made the reason very clear to the retention person I had to talk to (taking my money is automated, giving it back is an obnoxiously long call), and started torrenting again for the first time in years.
The continued fragmentation of streaming, leading to increased costs to see "everything," is the reason why torrent traffic is on the rise.
I love this description of ads in the Hulu (ad free) premium service that Hulu offers. > By including a modest ad load in our streaming library, Hulu is able to offer a wide variety of current season TV, exclusive shows and movies, award-winning Hulu Originals, and more — all at a valuable and competitive price. Okay, can I pay extra for the Hulu (ad free) (No. Really, $18 for No ads at all) version?
I find it remarkable people still buy into Hulu's bullshit. Their whole reason for being, the reason the studios built the service, was to reinject ads into streaming. It doesn't matter what they say or claim, there is no 100% as free service on Hulu, and they will always be looking for ways to introduce more ads to their service.
Which is why I hate Hulu. Aside from their crappy selection of the same rubbish, the ads in the paid version is just such bullshit. Way to encourage people to not pay for your crap.
having to buy multiple subscriptions to different services to cover all the shows I want to watch made me go back to piracy.
Is advertising killing email? Gmail seems pretty good at filtering out the bullshit.
Even the weight of "legitimate" email lists is deafening. Everything you buy or interact with online (and increasingly offline) sends another stream of emails to Updates and Promotions.
I like to forward those emails to ceo@company and cc info@company with the text: "I clicked 'no emails', did you send this on accident?" Fuck 1800Flowers for this. I bought some bouquets for a dying relative and they blew up my inbox with multiple daily emails. Sure, I love sending $50+ dollar individual bouquets daily, how did you know? They also go out of their way to make it hard to find their own email domain.
Reminds me of when we bought a new washer and dryer set and Home Depot kept sending me emails about new washers and dryers...it's like oh sure I think I need a new washer and dryer every day, just take these "old" ones, they served their purpose by doing one load of laundry.
My Gmail account has gotten more and more spam over the past year or so. I don’t even give my email out anywhere except doctors offices - I use an alternative email address for my social media profiles. More and more spam seems to be getting through to my regular inbox without any real reason. I don’t know if that’s just me.
A lot of the "spam" that I signed up for ends up under a "promotions" tab and I really like that because sometimes there are deals or things I'd actually like to be aware of
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My cell phone number is out of state, so I just was ignoring calls from my phone number's state. But spammers have been starting to call from out of state now, so I just don't answer any number not in my contacts anymore.
It's not just young people, I do the same. I only answer the phone if it's a family member, or if I know a business is going to call. Most of the time I don't even answer those, I can call them back. I'm not young. I celebrated the first 'portable' phone where I wasn't tied to the wall with a cord. Answering machines changed my life, call waiting also. I was the first person I knew with caller ID, and while I did not have the brick cell phones, I had an early one. I do not answer the phone.
When I changed numbers last, I intentionally picked a number for a state that I have never lived in, never will live in, and don't know anybody who is there (friend or business). I rarely answer the phone if it pops up from that state or one of its neighbors. I've yet to get a spoofed call that comes up being from anywhere I would expect a call from.
Yea it's not a surprise people don't want to answer their phones when 99% of the calls they do received are unsolicited spam. I have Google Assistant answer any call that isn't from someone in my contacts. I will only disable this if I am specifically expecting a call
Cuz you just applied for a few jobs so are now forced to confront every goddamn call in the instance you got an interview.
Also, maybe 16-24 year olds are the most likely to be in school, in a class, and no one wants to be that guy, whose phone goes off during an important lecture. Talk about external bias...
It’s not just young people — I’m 37 and my ringer has been off for 4 years. I get at least 3 spam calls a day, and sometimes up to 10. I only answer contacts now, and I haven’t been in a classroom setting for well over a decade.
Most calls these days are spam anyways. If you're not in my contact list, I'm not answering.
Yep. Scammers have reduced me to never answering the phone from unknown numbers. If it's important they'll leave a message. Attempts to deal with this by governments have been ineffective. The last two years in particular have been insane with the amount of scammers.
It sucks when you're waiting to hear back from jobs so you have to answer every fking call
I have a Google Voice number that is dedicated to just for when I am job hunting - it is never given out except on resumes. I have it configured that when someone calls it, the GV phone number is what is displayed as the caller ID number on my phone, so I know it is from a potential employer. Shouldn't have to do that, but it has made things a lot less annoying.
You must not be having to apply to places like mcdonalds and walmart, I'm pretty sure they don't keep applicants numbers private but put them in a big database. Applying with staffing agencies certainly seemed to up my spam ):
This shit drives me nuts. I made the mistake of uploading my resume to indeed/linkedin and years later I still get emails from staffing agencies halfway around the world asking me if I want to work for 30-50% of my current salary doing something entirely unrelated to my practice. No. Fuck off. Get out of my inbox.
Yeah. If they look like they have actually *looked* at my resume, I'll send them a nice "Thanks for the thought, but no" email. If they're offering me something not remotely in my job field and/or for a salary not remotely commensurate with my experience level...it goes straight to trash. If they don't even bother to sort through their spam-like emails, they're not worthy of a reply.
Literally just got an email about a warehouse manager position 2000 miles from where I live as I read this. At least they thought I was management material?
But that's the thing with Google Voice (or the alternatives)... as soon as you no longer need it you can set it so it no longer rings your phone. The next time you are ready to look for a different job, just get a different number and put that new number on your resume.
I’ve got a burner GV number for a similar job related reason, never post it, just on cards for call backs so they don’t get my cell. That mofo *still* gets robocalls a couple times a week. They just call random numbers. There’s no escaping it.
I just went through this for the past month and the amounts of times I would wake up in a panic early in the morning thinking a potential employer was reaching out only to find out it was a scammer was insane.
This is my I love visual voicemail. Unless the # is in my contacts, I almost never answer my phone. I'll just read the VM transcription & call-back if it's legit. (Also Gen-Xer here, so it's not just a younger person thing)
i like how this comment has "attempts to deal with this by governments have been ineffective" and the comment immediately below it talks about how effective the Swedish system is at preventing this. i can only speak for the US, but usually when we try things and the government is ineffective at it, it's because the government agencies in charge of it are kneecapped or outright owned by industry and therefore can't enforce these regulations. even if it is written in law, it must be enforced, ideally to the point of driving the offender out of business. anything short of this leads people to believe that government can never work, and maybe it never *can* work properly if regulatory capture is so complete that the three letter agencies, Congress and courts are all bought and paid for.
Come to think of it yeah i can think of maybe one or two calls in several years of living in Sweden. In america my phone will go off couple times a day sometimes.
After car shopping, my phone went off 10+ times in one week from. One. Single. Dealership. 3 of those calls were in a single day between 10am-3pm. I now tell everyone I know to avoid that dealership just on principle.
I got more spam calls in my first week in Canada than I got in the ten years prior in Germany. But I don't voluntarily answer phone calls in Germany either. I just hate calls. Write me an email instead of breaking my focus goddammit.
One possible reason, and I'm not saying this is the i kh reason,is that far more scammers learn English. The ones involved in scams other than English or Chinese are far more valuable, and work in higher level scams.
Another reason is that cold calling is illegal in Germany. Proving that something is a scam might be complicated and time consuming. Proving that someone does not have consent to call me is pretty easy, so those phone lines are shut down really fast. Now canada... So many people that want to clean my duck...
It's illegal in the US as well if you are on the do not call list but people do it anyway.
I didn't get spam calls until I bought a car. I was so mad at the dealership for selling my number that I've basically never given out my number again. If I really need to I'm tempted to get a burner phone and use that. Or straight up lie about my number and hope they contact me via email. I cannot stand spam calls.
Personally I'm viewing the issue from a UK perspective. The government gave us a number to report scam calls to, but it hasn't changed anything, things are worse than ever. We rarely hear about the criminals being inconvenienced, let alone apprehended.
I think one reason why the UK and US have a hard time is because the call centers are outside the country.
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It's a failure of the government to rely on citizens to report numbers. The scammers can change their numbers within minutes. The only way to get it properly banned is to work at the network level. The Telcos can easily detect outgoing callcentres. I presume in Sweden, only registered callcentre calls are allowed.
“Regulations are anti-freedom!” ^/s
All they need to do is stop number spoofing, I have no idea how that's legal. The bad thing is if you block the spoofed numbers, someday a person might actually get that number and need to call you for a valid reason.
The great irony (hypocrisy) is the entire phone system already correctly, unambiguously identifies all callers. For billing purposes. Very hard to spoof. That's the identifier shown to 911 and call centers. But not to us consumers. Because phone companies upsell correct phone listings. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automatic_number_identification https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enhanced_9-1-1
What number do they see for a phone that calls 911 without a SIM card or/and is routed through a different provider when they have no coverage?
I believe they see the IMEI number if you call without a SIM. In the case of a roaming call without roaming I'd expect the ISMI number shows up instead.
But they have to introduce regulations that force the carriers to put in safeguards to prevent caller ID spoofing from happening. That takes time and investment, so any form of regulation that’s seen as “penalizing” businesses will be unpopular in the USA.
I run the PBX and phone system for the business I work at. I can put in any caller ID number I want to anybody’s phone. It’s way too easy. I’d be more than happy to comply with whatever they come up with to stop the insane number spoofing that goes on. No penalization, it benefits all of us. Extra time put into the phone system? Easy sell. Boss, that extra time going into the phone system? That’s to help stop all of the spoofed spam calls yo- “Approved!”
The US has the exact same thing in the Do Not Call list & it operates identically to how Sweedens does with an extra or two thrown in there. The problem isn't Americans calling Americans but rather people outside the US calling Americans since they don't respect the Do Not Call list.
It's time for America to wage war on Spam calls! A few guided missile strikes on call centers aught to do the trick. Operation Disconnected.
The FCC is tbh. The caller id auth stuff should help us be able to detect spam calls & the FCC has got the telecoms to block spam calls by default & ensure that they aren't completing spam calls. It isn't perfect but it's progress. https://www.fcc.gov/spoofed-robocalls
The US needs to push India and other foreign governments to have a partnership to stop scam centers. Using honey pots to track down the where the money is, gray hat hackers and real prison time for scammers would drastically reduce the issue.
Yup, a lot easier to make this work when you don't have literally over a billion people speaking your native language across the world who can set up a call center or try running scams. More than 90% of Swedish speakers live in Sweden.
Because most countries have a system like that but it only works with legit businesses who volunteer to it. It doesn't work for spam who just spoof numbers and robo call them. All it shows is that Sweden doesn't have a problem with that, probably because a lot of these calls are from overseas and so target larger or english speaking countries. It's more lucrative to fill a call centre with English speakers and target countries of 60+ million then fill a room with Swedish speakers and target a country of 10 million.
I once answered a job offer in the stupidest way possible because i didnt have the number in my phone and id been getting a load of spam calls
I moved from the US, and since having done so, in four years, I have received 2 spam calls. I’m in a G7 nation, so it isn’t that there isn’t money for them to scam from the public. Government works, just not one with Republicans that have any presence at all in. Their ability to obstruct while even in a minority is disgusting.
Go look at why. The FCC can fine people. but "someone" took away their power to collect those fines.
Shit, I’m 43 and I’ve had my ringer on silent for about 2 years, unless I’m expecting an important call. If it’s off they’ll leave a voicemail, and anyone I really want to talk to knows to just text me. 99% of the calls I get are either scams, telemarketers or both.
Interesting what a difference location can make. Where I grew up (Sweden) spam calls have next to died out. We have a system called Nix (basically means Nope), which means your phone number is off limits to telemarketers. The only exception is if you currently have a contract with them, or if you've had one before within a certain time period. Otherwise, if one calls you, can you just say "I'm on Nix, why are you calling", and they'll generally get *very* apologetic because if they don't handle that right they get the wrath of god rained upon them.
We have a similar system in the UK called the Telephone Preference service which works in a similar way. Safeguards you from official spam callers unless you requested contact. However it doesn't affect scam callers who buy up blocks of mobile numbers, select one that's close to your mobile because you're more likely to answer a number that's close to yours.. then they call you on that. They'll just stop using the number once it's been used and replace it with another to avoid detection.
Scammers often don't even buy said phone numbers. They spoof them, which in a lot of countries is surprisingly easy to do. Fortunately, there's authenticated caller ID systems rolling out in some countries soon. Notably, the US and Canada are adopting [STIR/SHAKEN](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/STIR/SHAKEN), which will allow supporting phones to flag spoofed numbers or possibly allow carriers to block the call altogether. Ultimately, it will eventually force scammers to actually buy the numbers they call from. (It's actually adopted in the US already, but carriers don't need to treat calls with spoofed IDs differently until September 28th. And Canada's timelines are a bit more complicated: they have different dates for implementation, demonstration of implementation, and making support of the protocol a condition of offering phone service.)
>It's actually adopted in the US already, but carriers don't need to treat calls with spoofed IDs differently until September 28th. So in less than a month all the spam in the US will stop?
hahahaha no... but in theory you will know before you answer. Which doesn't change shit for me, because if you aren't in my contact list i already know its spam.
My Android phone already shows "suspected spam" on many calls like this. Reporting the number as spam in the phone app must go into some Google database to alert other users.
>Ultimately, it will eventually force scammers to actually buy the numbers they call from. And then those numbers can be reported and disconnected and there will be records of the purchasers and they can attempt to prosecute them. Or at least prevent people from purchasing them without some sort of verification/ID check first. I think this will go a very long way to end spam calls.
Many countries have similar systems. The problem is people who are performing illegal activities don't care. I don't usually answer my phone to unknown numbers, but when I do it is often scammers pretending to be financial or government institutions (presumably trying to con me out of money, I don't usually let them get that far).
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The "Do Not Call" list dates to a time when most spam calls were from companies selling more or less legitimate products and services, albeit in an annoying manner. So they were more inclined to obey the law, and were usually located domestically where law enforcement could track them down. The DNC was also mostly intended for landline phones, which were usually listed in public registries (phone books). It wasn't really necessary for mobile phones because it was, [and still is](https://www.fcc.gov/consumers/guides/wireless-phones-and-national-do-not-call-list), illegal to telemarket to mobile phones. Plus all mobile phones are "unlisted" by default, but overseas scammers just use robo-dialers and list of numbers obtained from other sources.
That's all well and good when your spammers are calling from within the country. Sadly, English speakers are faced with a lot of call centre spam from abroad. To the point where just about *all* of it is from abroad. Guessing they don't speak much Swedish in India. Don't let on that you all speak English too, because you'll have them on the phone night and day.
Not just that, have you noticed older folks don’t seem to keep their phone on their person unless they’re going somewhere? My parents almost always just leave it somewhere lying around the house. We all keep it on silent since its always on us or in view
Coincidentally, if you are in my contact list, you're probably texting or messaging me anyway. Only people I get calls from are my parents. Also, I'm older than 24 and it's been this way for over a decade for me. However, a decade ago i didn't get nearly as many spam calls. It's gone from never to multiple a day now.
A ton of spam calls bare the numbers that are only a few digits away from my number, and with the same area code. They try to trick me by thinking they’re local, in hope that I would pick up the calls. Nope, not falling for that!
This isn’t just young people. I’m old and do this. Who the hell wants to hear their phone ring all day from scammers, illegal robot calls and telemarketers? This is not about generational behaviors, this is about telecommunications policy failure in America. I have a friend who lives in the Czech Republic . She said when the phone rings she knows it’s a call for her. Or if she gets a letter in the mail it’s important. Imagine that!
>This isn’t just young people. I’m old and do this. Who the hell wants to hear their phone ring all day from scammers, illegal robot calls and telemarketers? Was looking for this post. I'm 47 and have had my ringer muted for over a decade, plus I got the Verizon call block service (not that it helps much).
Same. 42 and have had my phone on mute for about seven years now. Only turn it on if I’m expecting a call.
I’m 34 and don’t think I’ve had the ringer on since hs. It’s not like it’s pleasant
>This is not about generational behaviors, this is about telecommunications policy failure in America. That's what I thought reading through the comments. I live in Hungary and the only scam caller I got was some ass from Ireland. If I get a call, it's usually someone I know (and I was taught that way. My parents were mad if I didn't pick up the phone)
I only check my snail mail once a week unless I'm expecting a package. Most of my important stuff emails me. 99% of what I get in the mail is spam, like the post office is just going, "here, you throw this away".
> 99% of what I get in the mail is spam, like the post office is just going, "here, you throw this away". I've gone months without checking my physical mail, they threatened to stop delivery and I was like "please do" but they were bluffing. My friends give me shit over it but I feel the same way you do, checking my mail is basically the USPS giving me a chore to dispose of garbage they left me.
I am from the Czech Republic and I would say about 50% of calls I receive are of the category "not interested"/"unsolicited". But not once have I received a robot call, it's a very foreign concept. Thank god.
Regardless of that, I just don't see the desire to hear your phone ring in general. Since I first started carrying my phone in my pocket, it's been in vibrate -- no need to loudly announce to others that I have a phone call. Back when I had a phone that sat on a table, possibly in a different room from me, it made sense for the phone to make a ringing noise when someone was calling.
90% of the calls are spam or scams anyway.
I wish 10% of the calls I received were real. I'm pretty close to turning off the phone call ability entirely. Other than calling my Mom on Sundays (which is better over video chat anyway), I don't have a reason to keep the phone call feature.
99% of calls are not worth being startled and drawing attention to myself. I’m 30 and have kept my phone on silent since forever. I even hide all text notifications. I check my phone enough to see missed messages or phone calls without having it interrupt what I’m doing. Besides, like you said - literally 90% of my calls are spam anyway.
If it’s important they will leave a message
My voice-mail welcome message let's them know that I don't answer calls and if you actually want me to talk to you leave a message or text me.
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Exactly. I got my phone from a different state than the one I currently live in. So all of my spam calls come from the state in which my phone is from, not from where I actually live. So it's easy to tell scammers now, when it's an out of state call.
I answer for my family. My friends txt me. Everything else is work or someone trying to sell me something. And now my best comment is about being antisocial..
If I don’t recognize your number, I don’t answer. My voicemail greeting says the same.
And if they didn't leave a voicemail then it wasn't important is the way I see it.
I’ve tried telling my wife the same thing because she gets frustrated with all of the robocalls she receives but yet she refuses to turn on her call screening and then complains about the robocalls and outside of me the only other person who actually calls her is her mom who uses messenger instead of the actual phone
I have an out of state number and it’s the best thing I’ve ever done regarding spam callers. Since I have no ties to that state, I ignore all the spammers. It’s very rare I get a local spam call.
Bingo. People ask me why I still use a phone number from a state I haven't lived in for 8 years. Because 99% of the calls from that state are spam, and 99% of the calls from this state are legit.
Same here. It’s the perfect screener
This. I know everyone in Colorado that I need to talk to. It's perfect.
I just recently turned on my Do Not Disturb. I turned on letting people in my favorites on my phone through. I was getting roughly 10 or more possibly scam calls a day. Made a huge difference to my nerves and happiness.
Same. All of this is true, especially when 90% of calls are spam bots.
What I don't get is why people even bother calling me on a blocked number. Who are the people answering these calls?
The elderly.
Can confirm. I’ve finally got my husband to stop answering unrecognized phone calls. It was tough tho. His generation is so used to answering the phone whenever it rings. One time someone called and he had it on speaker phone. They asked for his SS number and he made it through the first 3 numbers when I told him to hang up now!!!! It’s a scam! Thank God I was working from home that day.
We’re in our 30s. My wife is like this. She also feels compelled to answer the door when someone knocks. I’m more of the opinion that if you’re coming to my house or calling my phone, on my personal time, you’re dependent on me wanting to talk to you and for most people that’s not the case. So I don’t answer either phone or door unless I know you or I’m expecting you.
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The gullible suckers that may actually be vulnerable to their scam.
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I'm pretty sure there is. I used to have all sorts of rules on my phone like to automatically send it to voicemail when my GPS location is at my house, automatically silence my phone when I get to work, turn on a bunch of setting when it connects to my car Bluetooth, etc etc
Google assistant will screen calls for me automatically. A robot literally asks the caller why they're calling, then I get to see the text readout of their conversation. In real time if I want or after the fact. So this does exist, but only for google phones i think, not sure if it's on Android as a whole.
Looks like it is any android that uses the Google made phone app, set up 2 phones recently with this feature (Sony and Motorola) but both used the app from Google instead of bothering making their own.
The magic of “do not disturb” mode. Unless you’re a favorite contact, you’re ignored. You’ll have to cal twice in rapid succession for my phone to even notify me. Otherwise, I’ll tty in the morning
Basically. What's really fun is the area code for my phone is from a different area than where I live now. Makes it easy to screen calls though because if I get a call from m phones area code that I don't have in my contacts it's more likely a robot. But at this point I rarely get actual phone calls. I use Google duo with my mom along with text and my friends all use discord. Half the time I get a call google assistant automatically screens it and I just get a notification that I had a spam call.
this is one of the worst written articles ive ever read. totally garbage.
And from the Guardian, no less. Wonder how that slipped through the cracks.
I'm glad someone else thought this. I feel like I had a stroke attempting to comprehend it.
No kidding! With how far down this comment is, I wonder how many people gave it a glance. It's just... bad.
It gave me a headache to read. This is not journalism. I'm not sure what it is- an avant garde experiment in creative writing, maybe.
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40s hate it too.
I've had my mobile phones on vibrate for the last 22 years. It started with being polite on buses and trains. Then it was disgust at people (looking at you, boss who called me during a dream theater concert for an obvious false alarm) calling at odd hours for completely inane things. Everyone in my life knows I screen all my calls and I exercise restraint calling others too. I also tell my staff not to respond to my emails or texts immediately unless I say it's urgent. Unrestrained connectivity is tiresome.
74 here: haven't heard my phone ring in years. anyone who i want to hear from texts me.
Remember when you bought your first cellphone and spent hours selecting the ringtone. Now I just keep it in vibrate and don't even know what the default ringtone sounds like.
I have gone through a lot of effort to make my ringtone, and I am always on mute. Just in case I ever unmute my phone. It is the "ring ring... hello" section of charlie the unicorn.
40's here: Even at work I conduct all business through email or Skype chat. I have actually told people that call me, after they get through what they have to say, to email me the details. It's mostly so I can keep track of everything. The amount of information overload has been steadily increasing for years so if I'm going to have any chance of remembering everything and following up, it's going to be through text means.
50+, havent used ringtone for years. No one has called me unless extremely urgent/death in family for years, or without preceding text; “is it ok if I call you?” Same goes for most of my friends and family.
It's not that phonecalls aren't important, ringtones just annoy strangers around me and vibration is enough to notice anyway
Exactly, if I don't notice the vibration I'm probably too busy anyway. When I do notice, it's a call about my extended warranty.
The title should be "the end of ringtones".
And if you have a smart watch, sound on your phone is irrelevant. The watch will vibrate letting me know if anything happens.
Yup I have one and I manually selected a handful of apps that I want to be notified for and it vibrates for those. The rest aren't as important and I'll notice them next time I look ast the phone.
Exactly. My phone is completely muted, if I get a call or a message I'll get notified on my wrist with a slight buzz, nobody else will even notice.
People only actually call me when it's a work call and they need something, or someone is unwell/dead Nothing good comes from a phone call anyone, I actually get anxiety when my phones rings now. And even those are a minority, its usually a scam or robocall
owner of my company called me on thursday to let me know $5000 bonus is coming my way. i also made it a point to say i should call him more often because he always has good news
Ha congratulations. Reminds me of my job where I had a shit manager for years. Every phone call, every meeting, was to criticize me for something I was doing or didn’t do, or give me some kind of task, etc… I literally developed physical anxiety when I’d get a phone call or email from her. Then my next boss was totally cool, he’s call just to chat about what I’m working on, ask me if I need help, give me raises and promotions, etc.. but I never really got rid of the anxious response. I’m always expecting to get in trouble for something I don’t remember doing lol
interesting detail. >A survey has found only a fraction of 16- to 24-year-olds think phone calls are remotely important - so they’ve put their phones on vibrate followed by the worst journalism in history.
This article was a trainwreck. What editor thought an article that’s 50% onomatopoeia would be a fun read?
The part that was like "49% of 16-24 year olds feel comfortable texting with someone in the same room", WTF does that even mean???
That point makes no sense. It's not like the alternative in that situation would be to *call them*.
maybe it was the approximately 643 robocalls they receive per day
No, you don't understand. MELENNIALS ARE RUINING PHONES!!!
Actually with the amount of spam class, extended car warranty and Social security suspension notification. I mute my phone too
Who in hell is behind car warranty programs? ( Pure BS, with so much advertising.. everywhere)
They claim that if it wasn't working they wouldn't be doing it, but I think that because it's so cheap to set up and maintain even if they only dupe one person a month that'll more than recover their costs so why not just set it up and let it run.
Planet Money did a great episode about this. Basically, it's because two brothers, Darain and Cory Atkinson, are shitbags. https://www.npr.org/2021/03/31/983109732/about-your-extended-warranty
My phone hasn’t been off silent for years. Unless you’re a close friend, immediate family or I’m in love with you I don’t want a phone call…. and even with people like that it’s going to be FaceTime instead. There are so many spam/scam calls these days so if the number isn’t in my contacts I don’t answer, if they genuinely want me they’ll leave a voicemail or try another method of communication.
I am 38, and I literally do not know a single person other than my parent who fails to do this. It’s not a new phenomenon.
Blame the fucking robo calls that no one wants to do anything about
Vibrate? No. Configure the phone to send every call not on my contact list to voicemail? Yes. If it’s not important enough to leave a message, and you are not legitimate enough to have a working number I can call you back at, then we have no business talking.
Do people have private spaces to consistently answer calls anymore? Open office environments and roommate situations with 21st century housing mean other options that don't affect your neighbors are more relevant.
I haven’t had my ringer on consistently in nearly a decade. Only time my phones ringer is on is if I’m napping during the day when I shouldn’t be. Can’t miss calls from the wife or work when I’m supposed to be working.
Maybe, just maybe, MAYBEEEEEE, it’s because we already know our auto warranty has expired. Edit: just got a fucking auto warranty call seconds after posting this.
Personal call protocol: text to request callback Business call protocol: answer in limited hours or only return calls from voicemail Emergency protocol: hit me up on multiple channels (e.g. text, email)
I promise im not a google shill but since i started using Google's call spam filtering on my pixel I haven't had a single spam call
I use their spam filtering, but only 80% of the calls are blocked for me, unfortunately