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Is there any reason to not encourage them to use a cellphone configured to only accept calls from a whitelist of numbers?

by GuiA 8y ago

newnewpdro 8y ago
Sure, many people want to leave the door open for distant relatives/friends to phone them if needed. My parents are immigrants and would about once a year get a phone call from some person I had never heard of from back home, usually when a friend of the family died back in the motherland. Your proposal would prevent such calls from succeeding.
- wavefunction 8y ago
  how is a distant relative going to find anyone's cellphone number? That makes absolute no sense, since cellphone numbers aren't posted in a public directory that distant relatives might honestly peruse.
  - mattkrause 8y ago
    It’s a small world—you can find most people just by walking your social network. “Hey, do you Carol’s number? I want to let her know about Aunt Bertha’s funeral.” “No, but my sister goes to yoga with her daughter. Let me put you in touch.”
  - newnewpdro 8y ago
    I'm talking about elderly people, from the era of land-lines and phone books. They want to be maximally reachable at the numbers dispersed long ago. They're often very lonely and it only gets worse as all their peers fade away, the last thing they want is to obstruct any potential genuine contact. To suggest they setup a whitelists where only their active set of connections may reach them demonstrates a profound lack of understanding and empathy for the elderly. Furthermore, it's important to keep in mind elderly immigrants are usually even more stuck in the past, having grown up in nations lagging in most ways behind the USA. When I visit where my parents came from, it's like visiting a museum. How they get the numbers is obvious, I don't think you've made any attempt to think about this. They tap into the friends network, people search through their phone books and give out numbers. It's how things used to be.
    - mirimir 8y ago
      > To suggest they setup a whitelists where only their active set of connections may reach them demonstrates a profound lack of understanding and empathy for the elderly. Maybe you let everything go to voicemail. Or if they're too far gone for that, you route it to your voicemail. And just pass along what's legitimate.
- scarejunba 8y ago
  My parents solved this problem with WhatsApp. Everyone contacts everyone via WhatsApp. Somehow there’s no spam calling on WhatsApp.
Broken_Hippo 8y ago
Yes, because of legitimate calls that are, indeed, important. Doctors and specialists and hospitals for starters. Your elderly spouse slip and fall while at the grocery store yet has a card with your phone number on it calls you. A friend who has had a landline gets a cell phone as well and calls. A hairdresser or other such place confirming an appointment. The list of these scenarios goes on. They are greatly outnumbered by the scam calls, but aren't few enough not to be an issue - especially the ones with doctor's and so on.

Is there any reason to not encourage them to use a cellphone configured to only accept calls from a whitelist of numbers?

by GuiA 8y ago

Is there any reason to not encourage them to use a cellphone configured to only accept calls from a whitelist of numbers?

newnewpdro 8y ago

Sure, many people want to leave the door open for distant relatives/friends to phone them if needed. My parents are immigrants and would about once a year get a phone call from some person I had never heard of from back home, usually when a friend of the family died back in the motherland. Your proposal would prevent such calls from succeeding.

wavefunction 8y ago
how is a distant relative going to find anyone's cellphone number? That makes absolute no sense, since cellphone numbers aren't posted in a public directory that distant relatives might honestly peruse.
- mattkrause 8y ago
  It’s a small world—you can find most people just by walking your social network. “Hey, do you Carol’s number? I want to let her know about Aunt Bertha’s funeral.” “No, but my sister goes to yoga with her daughter. Let me put you in touch.”
- newnewpdro 8y ago
  I'm talking about elderly people, from the era of land-lines and phone books. They want to be maximally reachable at the numbers dispersed long ago. They're often very lonely and it only gets worse as all their peers fade away, the last thing they want is to obstruct any potential genuine contact. To suggest they setup a whitelists where only their active set of connections may reach them demonstrates a profound lack of understanding and empathy for the elderly. Furthermore, it's important to keep in mind elderly immigrants are usually even more stuck in the past, having grown up in nations lagging in most ways behind the USA. When I visit where my parents came from, it's like visiting a museum. How they get the numbers is obvious, I don't think you've made any attempt to think about this. They tap into the friends network, people search through their phone books and give out numbers. It's how things used to be.
  - mirimir 8y ago
    > To suggest they setup a whitelists where only their active set of connections may reach them demonstrates a profound lack of understanding and empathy for the elderly. Maybe you let everything go to voicemail. Or if they're too far gone for that, you route it to your voicemail. And just pass along what's legitimate.
scarejunba 8y ago
My parents solved this problem with WhatsApp. Everyone contacts everyone via WhatsApp. Somehow there’s no spam calling on WhatsApp.

Broken_Hippo 8y ago

Yes, because of legitimate calls that are, indeed, important. Doctors and specialists and hospitals for starters. Your elderly spouse slip and fall while at the grocery store yet has a card with your phone number on it calls you. A friend who has had a landline gets a cell phone as well and calls. A hairdresser or other such place confirming an appointment. The list of these scenarios goes on. They are greatly outnumbered by the scam calls, but aren't few enough not to be an issue - especially the ones with doctor's and so on.