We are all connected, whether we like it or not.
Robocalls. Yeah, those.
Ring. Ringgggg. RINGGGGGGG. I reach over to my nightstand, fumbling my sleep mask up to see who’s calling my (very private) cell…and the glowing screen shows a random row of numbers, origin Lithuania.
This time, I put the phone on silent and sandwich it between pillows on the floor, irked that my precious sleep’s been interrupted, again.
In the last six months, I’ve been assaulted daily by robocalls, as have many others. In fact, when I look at my list of frequent contacts, Niger, Romania, Trinidad and Slovenia are the only friends who’ve reached out to me lately.
One day, I decided to answer one of those calls.
Perhaps we could have a dialogue. Maybe I’d even make a friend on the other side of the world. I could ask them the purpose of robocalls, if they ever worked, and explain why it was rude to use an algorithm to penetrate the lives of random complete strangers at all hours of the day or night, in order to…what, exactly? I’d tell them that this method of sales was not going to work, and to unsubscribe me, please, from whatever list I’m on. (I’ve already made sure I’m on the US Do Not Call registry.)
“Hello?” I said, to a caller marked Slovenia.
A long, vibrating hiss of cold emptiness filled my ear.
Not just nothing—this was a malevolent nothing, as if some icy demon made of dark smoke had reached out through the phone with a long, sticky black tongue that felt like death, and licked the side of my face.
I was marked. Known. Someone had me in their crosshairs, picked out via GPS. Out of all the suckers on the planet, here was one who’d been stupid enough to actually answer a robocall.
“F*ck you,” I said with fake bravery, because I never say that easily (or ever, if truth be known.) “Don’t call this number again.” I ended the call and blocked the caller, like I usually do.
(Whatever that actually means.)
I set the phone on the coffee table and stared at it.
It’s a fact that I’m trackable, knowable, branded and recorded…and not just by robocalls, or my temerity in answering one, but by the mere ownership of a cell phone. This tiny portable computer with a location chip pulses out my whereabouts and personal information on a constant, minute-by-minute basis.
I resent being reminded that my privacy is an illusion, that my sleep, my solitude, my life and family, can be invaded anytime by a random number generator in another country who is doing this for no discernable reason.
“Subscribe to one of those blocker services,” friends have said.
But what does that really mean? By doing so, I’ll give power to screen whoever reaches out to me to a third party, along with all of my personal information—and to add insult to injury, I’ll pay for that dubious privilege.
My characters often go “off the grid” to escape surveillance and interference—but the truth is, modern life is inconvenient when you’re off the grid. Ridesharing is impossible. Paying for things is challenging. Traveling takes real planning and actual paper maps to pull off. And communication? Most pay phones don’t even work. Who knows anyone else’s numbers anymore to call a friend from a burner phone? And if we did, would they pick up an unknown number? Probably not. The only numbers I dislike more than foreign robocalls, are cell phone calls marked UNKNOWN.
Everything’s stored in our phones…everything that makes us individuals, aka trackable bundles of moving data for apps to target for marketing.
Most of the time, this doesn’t bother me. I figure I don’t have anything to hide, and as long as that’s the case, who cares? I’m a thinking and thoughtful person who can weed my way through the spam that surrounds me, and if I give in to the occasional impulse buy of face cream or fancy dog treats from a convenient ad, as long as the product was worth what I paid, everyone’s a winner.
But robocalls tell me that larger forces are at work. They point to the unwelcome knowledge that our minds are being manipulated, that news and information is screened and distorted, and that what we put out in good faith via social sharing, becomes fodder for unknown agendas. Robocalls remind me that our last election was influenced by outside forces, and that we are living in a changed world because of it.
Robocalls reach in with their intrusive ringgggg, and disrupt my happy oblivion.
Phones, our lifeline of connection, can also be a weapon… and somewhere in Slovenia, my number has been noted as LIVE.
How do you handle robocalls, and the issues of privacy we all struggle with?
I never used to answer my phone if I didn’t recognize the phone number. Yes, it’s extremely annoying to be interrupted by a ringing phone when you know that 80% of the time, it’s a robocall. BUT….currently I am looking for work and my cell phone number is on my resume. I can’t NOT answer the unknown calls, or the calls from an unfamiliar area code. I answer, hear the buzz or the few notes of music and I know it’s another one. I hang up, but the damage is done. Since the job hunt began, the number of robocalls has doubled. I’m wondering if I’ll need to get a new number when my job search is over. 🙁
Somehow, I’m lucky and don’t get robocalled much of ever. Just those horrible car warrantee people. They get new numbers every so often, I’ll block 4 or 5 and then nothing for a few weeks, then another 4 or 5… I never get any from foreign countries. I don’t know why, I’m just grateful for it.
I have voice mail, so even if I don’t answer, my voicemail will. So the robot will get a “this is a real number” response no matter what I do, since I’m not often available to actually decide whether to answer or reject a call. Usually I’m driving my bus and only check my phone hours later.
I know that if I really thought about how much information I give away online, it would probably scare me to death. I keep my thoughts away from that because, honestly, I know I’m unlikely to change my behavior, and freaking myself out isn’t going to help. But it is amazing how much of ourselves is in our phones, and how incredibly hard it is to be without one these days!
If you’re an ATT user, they recently produced a new security app that seems to be working, although my problem is smaller than yours. If not ATT, still check with your provider to see if they offer anything. Seems to be a national problem. You can block immediate numbers.
I just finished book 10, Wired Truth. The whole series has been a joy to read. But it appears that the books after this one will no longer be on Kindle Unlimited. I read more than 300 books last year and am on track to read more than that this year. I made a deal with my husband that I wouldn’t purchase books, that I would just read books through Kindle Unlimited since it would be too expensive to keep buying books, as many as I read. So if you no longer will be publishing your books through Kindle Unlimited, I will no longer be able to read your books. That is a shame because I really like your books. I know I’m just one person, but if you could still publish through Kindle Unlimited, I would really appreciate it since I really like your writing. If you can’t do that, I understand, and thank you for the books that I’ve already read.You are a great author and I appreciate the hours of entertainment you have provided for me. Thank you! Beth
I recently put my home up for sale in SoCal and used a service called Upnest after canceling with a very unprofessional realtor. Once my original realtor dropped off the MLS, and even before using Upnest, I had a huge jump in robocalls of all kinds, not merely real estate related. It was as if the very portals of Hades had opened and all the Eastern bloc countries unleashed all of their most talented robocallers! I have AT&T but their latest software was powerless against this onslaught. I contemplated getting a new number but I just received this number after having the same phone number for 24 years when AT&T was able to change my number when I transferred from another company. They are finally tapering off after blocking every other call. Nightmare! I refuse to believe that our country doesn’t have the technology to put a stop to this crap if they weren’t getting some kind of benefit out of it!
I live in Brooklyn, NY and for some reason I get robocalls, every single day – in Chinese! I am not Chinese, and while the last neighborhood I lived in was a Chinatown, this one isn’t. I just hang up, but it’s all so annoying.
Aloha, Toby! This is what I do now so that I do not get disturbed at night except from the people I want or need to hear from. Set your cell to “do not disturb” for your normal sleep time. In your contacts list on the phone, star, favorite or vip the people you will allow to break through the “do not disturb”. And as mentioned above so many times I do not answer calls from numbers I do not recognize. If they do not leave a message I will block them. If they leave a message and it is not someone I know I block them. It is a travesty that we have to be so diligent in order to have peace in our lives.
I just finished reading Blood Orchids recommended by Christine from Basically Books in Hilo. I walked in looking for one book and walked out with 6, one of which was yours. Such a treat being able to talk to someone who knew about the authors in Hawai’i or have Hawaiian backgrounds. Mahalo nui loa.