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In that example, would the person not have just left a message, “Hi it’s Name, please call me back right away”? I just don’t understand how we got to a place w

In that example, would the person not have just left a message, “Hi it’s Name, please call me back right away”? I just don’t understand how we got to a place where the way things worked for decades suddenly doesn’t work anymore. We would leave our homes and not be reachable. Most urgent calls aren’t actually “emergencies.”

jjulius 3y ago
>In that example, would the person not have just left a message, “Hi it’s Name, please call me back right away”? Sure, but whether or not that suffices for someone is pretty circumstantial. Like I said, I don't disagree with your general sentiment, just the absolute. And hey, change happens, c'est la vie.
robertlagrant 3y ago
That's partly true, but also sometimes that was a problem. In the same way mobile phones shouldn't have to worry about working with emergency services numbers as before we had mobile phones we were still calling them. In other words: it is sometimes better to do things that weren't done in the past.
mcpackieh 3y ago
Doctors refuse to acknowledge the existence of voice mail. It might be some perceived legal/liability thing or maybe it's just a manifestation of their arrogance, but in my experience no doctor will ever leave a voice mail ever. I fully expect that if one of my relatives ends up incapacitated in the hospital and I'm their first contact, the hospital phonecall will go unanswered (not in my contacts list, so my phone won't ring) and I'll receive no voice mail or SMS.
- isykt 3y ago
  If your relative ends up incapacitated, it won’t be a doctor who calls, it will be a social worker. They will leave a message. There are other situations that result in a person not being able to answer their phone: being asleep, being in a movie theater, being on an airplane, being in a tunnel, being on a camping trip, having a cell phone that malfunctioned, having a cell phone with a dead battery, being on another call when the call was received, being out of the country and using a local SIM…
- supertrope 3y ago
  Some doctors offices interpret HIPAA's privacy rule as not letting them release any information until they've verified the far end of the phone call by asking for your name and DOB. So VM is out. I've seen others let you specify on the intake form: Full voicemail OK? Y/N. Brief voicemail OK? Y/N.
atyppo 3y ago
Your second point is very interesting to me as someone born in 2000 who's only really known a world where this is true. It seems so distant and novel from where we are today.
jancsika 3y ago
> I just don’t understand how we got to a place where the way things worked for decades suddenly doesn’t work anymore. You're making up a past that didn't exist. During the entire period where caller ID existed in the U.S., I can only think of a single person who screened their calls in the way you've outlined. (And that person also happened to screen calls from known numbers, too, so it doesn't really count.) Everyone else would screen obvious calls coming from toll free numbers (1-800, etc.), and just take a chance on the remaining unknown numbers. An answering machine/ringer could be turned off for special occasions, but that's no different than putting a cell in airplane mode or whatever. In fact, there was an entire genre of comedy albums devoted to messing with incoming telemarketer calls during this period. Those albums wouldn't have resonated like they did if most people had been screening all unknown numbers.

jjulius 3y ago

>In that example, would the person not have just left a message, “Hi it’s Name, please call me back right away”? Sure, but whether or not that suffices for someone is pretty circumstantial. Like I said, I don't disagree with your general sentiment, just the absolute. And hey, change happens, c'est la vie.

robertlagrant 3y ago

That's partly true, but also sometimes that was a problem. In the same way mobile phones shouldn't have to worry about working with emergency services numbers as before we had mobile phones we were still calling them. In other words: it is sometimes better to do things that weren't done in the past.

mcpackieh 3y ago

Doctors refuse to acknowledge the existence of voice mail. It might be some perceived legal/liability thing or maybe it's just a manifestation of their arrogance, but in my experience no doctor will ever leave a voice mail ever. I fully expect that if one of my relatives ends up incapacitated in the hospital and I'm their first contact, the hospital phonecall will go unanswered (not in my contacts list, so my phone won't ring) and I'll receive no voice mail or SMS.

isykt 3y ago
If your relative ends up incapacitated, it won’t be a doctor who calls, it will be a social worker. They will leave a message. There are other situations that result in a person not being able to answer their phone: being asleep, being in a movie theater, being on an airplane, being in a tunnel, being on a camping trip, having a cell phone that malfunctioned, having a cell phone with a dead battery, being on another call when the call was received, being out of the country and using a local SIM…
supertrope 3y ago
Some doctors offices interpret HIPAA's privacy rule as not letting them release any information until they've verified the far end of the phone call by asking for your name and DOB. So VM is out. I've seen others let you specify on the intake form: Full voicemail OK? Y/N. Brief voicemail OK? Y/N.

atyppo 3y ago

Your second point is very interesting to me as someone born in 2000 who's only really known a world where this is true. It seems so distant and novel from where we are today.

jancsika 3y ago

> I just don’t understand how we got to a place where the way things worked for decades suddenly doesn’t work anymore. You're making up a past that didn't exist. During the entire period where caller ID existed in the U.S., I can only think of a single person who screened their calls in the way you've outlined. (And that person also happened to screen calls from known numbers, too, so it doesn't really count.) Everyone else would screen obvious calls coming from toll free numbers (1-800, etc.), and just take a chance on the remaining unknown numbers. An answering machine/ringer could be turned off for special occasions, but that's no different than putting a cell in airplane mode or whatever. In fact, there was an entire genre of comedy albums devoted to messing with incoming telemarketer calls during this period. Those albums wouldn't have resonated like they did if most people had been screening all unknown numbers.