I rejoice every day I can enjoy without the interruption of a buzzing, ringing, or singing telephone! Ringtones... what an absolutely terrible idea.I have a telephone and it is for one reason, and one reason alone; for MY BENEFIT! That is for my convience. To service my needs for communication.
My telephone is not for you. It is not so that any arbitrary person any where in the world has the right, although they have the ability to interrupt me and make their desire the focal point of my moment.
If you have a desire to speak with me, that message must be communicated to me so I can speak to you on my terms; when it is convenient for me!
For example there was a time and if I tried to set aside 15 or 20 minutes to write this piece of jibberish, I would surely have been interrupted by one if not two or more phone calls. Would any of them had been so important that they needed to be taken before I finished writing this? Not likely!
Yet, the telephone has given the power to the caller to overpower the needs of the recipient and make the caller's needs more important than the person being called. Downright Absurd!
Let's look at another example, possibly extreme, but it shows the true "power" of the telephone. A friend leaves his 8th floor apartment and just as he gets in a taxi cab out front, shattering glass covers the taxi.
A bit odd, but he believes it unrelated to himself and leaves for his appointment. He is shocked when he returns home and learns the real story. Just after he left, his telephone rang.
I say he's gone, and they can leave a message or call back later. His maid has a differnet view, grabs the phone and runs for the balcony in an attempt to catch my friend before he's gone. The big problem was the sliding glass door was closed and she went crashing through it. Luckily there was no serious injury.
There's gotta be a better way... and I think it is email. So much communication is so much better handled by email at the convience of both parties.
Hang up now and go online!