Exploring the Self: How I Came to Dislike Phones so Much

This human experience can be strange sometimes.

For as long as I can remember, I have had a profound dislike of telephones, and talking on the telephone.

When I was little and we were living in Denmark, I was mostly told to avoid the phone because "it was expensive" and we had to pay by the call and by the minute. But that hardly constitutes a traumatic or negative experience.

Even so, I didn't like phones. Mostly, I didn't like the fact that I couldn't see the person behind the voice on the other end of the call.

It only got worse in adulthood...

In retrospect, I can now look back and recognize that up until I was about 40, pretty much the only reason the phone would ever ring would be either (A) because someone needed something from me or (B) because it was a bill collector looking for payment for something I did not have the money to send for.

As an introvert, I didn't really have that many friends, so in the broader stream of inbound phone calls the chances that a given call would be from someone I actually wanted to hear from were slim. So, I learned to "dodge" the phone whenever I could!

Even another 20 years later, I still avoid phones as much as possible.

Given the choice, I'd much prefer to go see someone in person, even if it isn't very convenient. Maybe that sounds creepy or weird, but I have gradually made peace with this particular quirk of mine.

Sometimes we humans are just strange!

Thanks for stopping by and have a great remainder of your week!

How about you? How do you feel about talking on the phone? Love it? Hate it? Leave a comment and be part of the conversation!

20230613 02:15 PDT