Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!van-bc!rsoft!mindlink!a1174
From: Peter_MacDougall@mindlink.UUCP (Peter MacDougall)
Newsgroups: comp.org.eff.talk
Subject: Caller-ID: a thought to ponder
Message-ID: <5324@mindlink.UUCP>
Date: 30 Mar 91 04:16:48 GMT
Organization: MIND LINK! - British Columbia, Canada
Lines: 45

Perhaps this is the place to mention it, Perhaps not.

I like to use my computer, tinker with it, etc.... Ocassionally though I remind
myself of a cartoon that a local editorial cartoonist (Olson from the Vancouver
Courier) produced.  In the cartoon there was a dialogue between a perpetual
couch potato and his anthromorphic, demonic TV.  In this scenario, the TV was
asking the fellow what he
wanted to watch and the fellow replied with a series of literary quotes about
the mind-numbing qualities of the boob tube.  The couch potato
wins the verbal volley and gets up.  However the TV sighs, "Thank goodness for
my cousin or people would start to interact!" as couch potato sits down to his
computer.

OK.  So that is not quite true if he was logging onto a BBS.  But aside from
personal E-Mail, a BBS can be a lonely anonymous place for most.  You cast your
arrow in the air and where it lands you know not where.  Most of the "personal"
is taken out of personal interaction (perhaps with the exceptions of flames and
e-mail)

How does this link to caller ID?  Only that with computers and their wonderful
ways of interfacing with each other, I feel sometimes that more and more people
are using their computers/telephones/answering machines to communicate with
others rather than themselves.  "I'll get my machine to call your machine"
does not seem so ridiculous anymore.  But in many ways it is.

Of course this comes out of one of my pet peeves: people using answering
machines to screen calls.  It goes completely against my grain.  It says a lot
to me about how much someone respects other people and their own feelings of
self-importance.  I use my answering machine so that it is EASIER to contact
me, not harder.

Now, obviously I do not get too many nuisance calls.  If I do, like telephone
sales people, I tell them I'm not interested and goodbye; they are people too
nonetheless despite their unwelcome job duties.

People will probably use caller-ID and answering machines to screen calls and
that is their perogative.  But I wonder if it does not just
isolate people more than ever.

Just something to consider.

Peter MacDougall

Peter_MacDougall@MINDLINK.uucp
Remember, Crack Kills, Speed Bumps!