My phone is not publicly writable anymore

Phone numbers are weird. They are not secret in their nature, and they grant everyone public write access to my phone (which is surprisingly intrusive with all the noises and vibrations the phone can make).

In the old days, when telephones had numbered buttons, I think phone usage was a bit more self-regulatory due to the few pennies a call cost. That’s not anymore.

I receive a couple of cold calls every week from Dutch numbers, even though the Dutch law forbids cold calls. I don’t know why the law is not effective. This reminds me of the CAN-SPAM Act 2003 which forbids sending non-solicited marketing e-mails a.k.a. Spam, which, apparently, was not effective either.

After having my flow interrupted by rather unfriendly cold callers for the n’th time, I decided to block unknown numbers. iOS has a feature for that. If iOS has not seen the calling number before, it will forward the call to my mailbox, which gives me the chance to listen to the message at a convenient time. Short term experience shows: Cold callers don’t even leave a message.

When I look back, I hardly ever received a call that was so urgent that it cannot wait to be answered. Even more so for numbers that are not in my contacts.

If you need to reach me, you will find a way. Just know that my phone is not on “write all” anymore.