Coming out of the closet: I hate phone calls

I hate phone calls. For someone who is known as Mister Mobility and who loves his phones, it must come as a surprise to anyone to hear that I find phone calls irritating and distracting. Sometimes, I find them stressful too. From my earliest exposure to mobile devices as a growing child, my love for data has never been in doubt.

When GSM mobile telecommunications arrived in Nigeria, I immediately found out that I very much preferred data over voice. My choice of devices generally leaned towards data – Ericsson R380s, Motorola A008 Accompli, Nokia’s Communicators and the like. I barely make phone calls except when absolutely necessary, and I often find that a ringing phone constitutes a rude interruption to my train of thoughts.

But I am not alone..

As a rule, I would rather send an email, chat or send an SMS than place a phone call. Sue me. I do place and receive voice/video calls, but left to me, my hands would be doing all the communicating. I tweeted about this two days ago:

@Mister_Mobility Same here. I don’t like phone calls.

— Ernest Ojeh (@namzo) September 9, 2013

I wasn’t expecting much of a response, and so was shocked when tweep after tweep responded to say that they hate phone calls too. Oh boy! Have a look at some of the responses that I received:

@Dikachim @Mister_Mobility Y’all ain’t alone 🙂

— Muyo-san (@MuyoSan) September 9, 2013

@mister_mobility great am in a good company. My ratio is 50mails : 1call.

— Fámúyîdé Oláwálé (@famuyideolawale) September 9, 2013

Apparently, the virus is far more widespread than I had supposed:

@Mister_Mobility ? “@CassBaba: I’m infected too RT @Dikachim: I hate phone calls so much I’m beginning to think it’s a disease.”

— Wonder Ben (@_1da) September 9, 2013

2. RT @Mister_Mobility: I must be one of the few people on this planet who gets irritated by phone calls. Is there a medical term for this?

— Komole bot (@Abyurla) September 9, 2013

Look, ma! No phone!!

Then, I got the surprise of my life when another gentleman responded with this:

@Mister_Mobility @namzo I don’t even have a phone :/

— Donnie Ibiyemi (@donnieibiyemi) September 9, 2013

No phone! He owns no phone – in 2013! He is far advanced on the evolutionary ladder. I wish I could evolve and adapt after him, but then without mobile phones, my life would immediately go from very exciting to terribly boring. I love my phones. I just don’t care much for telephone calls. Phone calls interrupt and demand too much attention.

Doctor, Doctor!

It looks to me like there is a whole army of people out there who do not like telephone calls. I have had to ask if there is a medical term for this. Not that I think that it is an illness or anything. But you know that there is a medical term for everything these days. If there is none for this hatred of phone calls, perhaps it is time to coin one.

What about you? Are you a hater of phone calls too and have been in hiding? It is time to come out of the closet. There is a huge family waiting to embrace you out there.

Author: Mister Mobility

Master storyteller and founder of Mobility Nigeria, Mister Mobility, has used and reviewed hundreds of mobile phones since 2001.