Well that's just silly. If you don't recognise the number, don't answer it.
If it's someone you know, and it's important, they'll leave a message and you can call them back. If it's someone you don't know, and they leave a nuisance message, block them.
I've never understood people doing this. Why not just answer the phone? It takes 1 second to realize its spam, and you hang up, without risking ignoring your friend or a new doctor's office, and without touching voicemail. I don't like getting these calls either, but 90% of the damage is interrupting what I'm doing, getting out the phone, and looking at the screen.
I can only imagine that for some people there is some sort of visceral unpleasantness with hanging up on telemarketers or something and they'd rather ignore the call.
It's significantly more effort than necessary when you don't recognize a #.
Not sure what all these calls were accomplishing.
So I eventually started messing with them. Just wasting their time for a few minutes, acting clueless, until either they hung up or I got tired of it and told them I'd keep wasting their time if they kept calling.
Then in one call after I messed with them a few minutes, they said "Thanks for playing <my phone number>, you will continue to receive phone calls."
Let that sink in.
They knew I was just wasting their time, they knew how many phone calls they had made, they were fine with me wasting their time.
The flaw in their plan was identifying my phone number when they said that. I had 3 or 4 numbers going to my cell phone (Google voice, an old home number via Asterisk). This call came while I was switching from Verizon to Project Fi on my Google Voice number, and they identified that they were calling my Verizon number. I loved Project Fi, so I cancelled my Verizon number.
Pity the foo who got that number assigned to them.
To complain later that they're paying $100 per month?
Here's how to have unlimited outbound minutes: call using Google Voice
Paying for incoming calls is ridiculous already, but people really like to shoot themselves in the foot
In Europe (Ireland) 10Euros on pre-paid gives you 7.5Gb per month and unlimited calls (tax included)
So being the recipient, the initiator intrudes on my time. If I accept this I have (at least in old times, before caller ID) no chance of knowing, if this intrusion has a valid (and for me valuable) reason.
Even today, I have no chance of knowing beforehand, if the caller really is adding value to my day. Therefore if my time used in the call generates added value by whatever the caller tells me (or how I feel after talking to him/her).
So if this intrusion by a caller would additionally be fee-ridden, the risk of taking a call grows exponentially. Therefore I would let go all calls to mailbox and have the person exactly state what they intend to talk about. Even family (I hate social chit-chat calls).
So probably I would not need the phone at all except for mail-checking and in case of an emergency, as after some tries no one would want to call me. The incentive to not take a phone (at least in my case) would lead to that.
Your spam filters probably catch the occasional false positive. This is pretty much the same tradeoff.
As for why I don't answer the phone in general, the idea that someone thinks they can commandeer my undivided attention for _any_ amount of time is offensive to me. I respond to IM/email quickly enough that I'm confident I won't miss anything urgent and unlike voice, those media are asynchronous and won't interrupt whatever I'm doing.
But you're participating in the framework that permits such commandeering by carrying an addressable cell phone. Society's general expectation is that someone who volunteers to buy and operate a voice-enabled phone is willing to be called.
Why not buy a data-only SIM if you disagree with that fundamental premise?
- Being able to call out is handy for interacting with antiquated infrastructure at e.g. banks, government agencies and cable companies.
- There are times when I'm willing to receive scheduled calls from e.g. my accountant, my bank (fraud checks) or phone number verification for online services.
- Being able to receive SMS is handy for verification and notifications of things like Amazon deliveries and Lyft pickups, while not being intrusive.
- I haven't found a data-only SIM that gives me unlimited bandwidth.
And I disagree that "someone who volunteers to buy and operate a voice-enabled phone is willing to be called", despite it being the norm in the past. A phone is no longer the voice + SMS device that it once was (and when it was, I would have agreed with you). It's now a small, convenient and easy to use computer, that just so happens to have a phone built in (and impossible to acquire without it).
Plus there's the fact that many official forms require a phone number of some sort, and it seems less evil to provide a number you own but don't answer than a random one.
Theoretically if someone were to knock, I would check through the peephole and then decide whether to open the door. If not, I'd tell them to leave. If they decide not to leave, I would contact law enforcement, regardless of the knocker's intent.
Alternatively, use a google voice number, turn the apps on only when you need to call / receive a call.
Unfortunately this doesn't work. If the number itself has ever been used before (it has), it's already on a bunch of lists. Many banks and credit card providers will also share it with marketers.
I don't know but ignoring a call feels very unsatisfying. It keeps gnawing at me.
It's NOT ignoring your friends if you don't pick up the phone every time they call. Regardless, my friends numbers are in my contact list. Crazy huh?
I might leave a meeting to ask my mom why she's calling in the middle of the day, but I'm not going to answer my phone for an unknown number and I'm mostly pretty annoyed by anonymous calls. They're very clearly a second class citizen for my attention.
* If it's a withheld/private number, I don't answer.
* If it's a number I don't recognise, I don't answer.
* If it's a number I recognise from work/a client, I don't answer.
* If it's a number I recognise from a friend, I don't answer.
* If it's a number I recognise from a direct relative, I don't answer.
* If it's a number I recognise from a very direct relative and I've been called several times in the last minutes, I start pondering if I should pick it up or not. I usually do not, but ymmv
Sometimes I glance at my phone, notice it ringing, and answer it; other than that, it pretty much goes unanswered.
Of course if you have children, you'd be paranoid at any number-what if it's school? A teacher? The hospital? That's hairy stuff.
There are other technologies for messaging (hangouts, WhatsApp, etc...). Also, if the issue is friends and family, OP could simply let them know to phone only in case of emergency but to use messaging at all time otherwise.
Complaining that people phone you, people who are close to you, family and friends, and proudly boasting of ignoring the calls feels very immature to me. You don't want phone calls? Don't give out your number, find alternative techs for messaging, or at the very least make it clear to people that you don't want them to call.
That's not how social interaction works. If someone asks for my number so they can text me, I happily give it to them. I'm not going to interrupt the conversation at that point to give them a lecture to never call me. They will get the point when I don't answer.
It's like telling people not to give out their physical address for mail if they don't want people to show up unannounced at their home.