Why don't people leave a message?

I hate telemarketers. While my home phone number is on the National Do-Not-Call list, which basically means I get only one or two telemarketers getting through and calling me a week, as opposed to most people who get several phone calls a day, it's still annoying. These telemarketers usually call and hang up when they get my answering machine.

When I call someone, and I get their answering machine or voice mail, I leave a message. It's not hard at all. I say something like "Hey, it's Jeff. Gimme a call when y'get this message. Talk to y'later" and hang up.

I don't understand how people can have this irrational fear of leaving messages. More often than not, people are scared to leave messages. This baffles me. How can people be scared about leaving messages? Why do they not leave a messages? It's not like they're going to be the one hearing their own voices.

Nowadays, when I pick up my home phone, I listen for a dial-tone before I dial in my number. I didn't use to do that. Now I do. That's because, a long time ago, when my older brother called a friend and was in the process of leaving a message, I had tried calling my friend but didn't realize he was on the phone already. He started cursing at me for not listening for a dial-tone first. I started cursing at him telling him I had an important phone call to make. After a minute of us cursing at each other, my older brother realized that the answering machine was still recording on the other line. Neither of us developed an irrational fear of leaving messages even though I'm pretty sure if that message recording still existed and was never deleted, or the Internet was around back then, an mp3 of that recording of my brother and I cursing each other out would be floating around the Internet today.

Most people believe in this weird approach, that if they call and get an answering machine/voice mail, they would simply call back again and again and again until they manage to get through to the person picking up on the other line. I think this is really annoying. I hate people who do that. You're doing no one any favors doing that. Constantly calling someone is so damn annoying. You're eating up my cell phone battery all because you're too chicken shit to leave a message.

My cell phone is my main phone. It has caller ID on it so I know who calls me. When I notice a missed call, I don't bother calling back. Why? Because, if you don't leave a message, then that means it's not important enough for me to call you back to find out why you had called me in the first place. Afterall, it seems like it's unimportant to you to leave a message, therefore, it's unimportant to me to return your missed call.

Let's say you call me and I know it's you but I don't want to talk to you so I ignore your call. However, it's important that you reach me. Of course, you're completely unaware that I'm ignoring your phone call so you will continuously call me where I will continuously ignore you. Your message will never get through simply because you don't leave one.

However, let's pretend you leave a message. Even though I'm ignoring an incoming call from you, I highly doubt I'd ignore an incoming voice message. That's because, from my point of view, if someone leaves me a message, that means it's pretty important so I tend to pay attention to it. Therefore, your leaving a message manages to not only reach me but also get your point across to me, that I shouldn'tve been ignoring your incoming call in the first place.

I've had some very bad experiences with people who are too scared to leave a message. They would constantly call me but would never leave a message. My cell phone would be constantly ringing even though I'm sometimes too busy to answer right away or perhaps in a place where I shouldn't be on the cell phone in the first place, like when I'm driving and don't have my hands-free earphone attachment readily available. After receiving calls from the same person over and over again, I would pull over and simply answer the phone and say "Call back again and leave a damn message next time" before hanging back up. Man, people capable of leaving messages nowadays seem more rare than a girl that can do complex math problems. Heck, it's more rare than me not saying something offensive.

Some people simply hang up out of frustration. Well, lemme thank you in advanced for that. "Thank you, asshole". What seriously annoys me with people who don't leave messages is that they're akin to telemarketers. With a regular home phone, you sometimes receive calls from telemarketers, all of whom hang up if they ever get your answering machine. I primarily use my cell phone to avoid this but it doesn't help any because I have to deal with all those people that hang up because they're basically too scared to leave a message anyway. Heck, these people are probably even worse. With a telemarketer, they call a home phone, get an answering machine, and then hang up and not call back for a day or so. But with these people, they would constantly call you, several times through the day. These people are more akin to the annoying yet even more tenacious telemarketer.

While I don't really care if you're angry at me for any reason at all, I find it amusing that there are people out there getting frustrated with me because they can't leave a message.

I understand people have self-esteem and confidence issues. However, I must say that if you can not get over something like leaving a message to a machine, how do you expect to get over this issue when dealing with people? Sure, you might be more accustomed to talking to someone on a face-to-face basis but I think you're giving yourself an excuse to not leave a message. Just the mere fact that you called in the first place means you're ready to leave your comfort zone of is being able to see a person face-to-face. You might as well take that extra step and leave a message.

Granted, there is a chance that you leave a message and it won't be heard anytime soon, no sooner than had you called continuously. Well, if that's the case, continue to call. At least your message WILL eventually get through, be it you finally reaching that person or them hearing the message you left behind. There are people out there that regularly check their voice mail/answering machines on a regular interval, sometimes at a more frequent interval than your constant calling. There could be a chance someone receives your message in between your calls.

Lemme give you a scenario of WHY you should leave even a useless message:

Let's say you want to go see a movie. You call a female friend you have a crush on but get an answering machine/voice mail. You leave her a message saying something along the lines of "Hey, It's me. I'm going to go see this movie called 'Just Won't Die'. If you want, I'll meet you there. The movie starts at 8 pm. Bye." That's a simple message. Granted, asking someone to go so a movie with you isn't totally important, but bare with me. However, if you happen to be one of those guy stuck in the Friend Zone and seem to have no chance of escaping the Friend Zone, it might be important.

Now, if you are one of those people that plan on calling every time until you get through, that just seems desperate. Let's assume there's plenty of time between when you called first to ask and when the movie starts. Because of this, you'll probably end up calling a few times, to spread out the intervals so it won't seem like you're calling every 15 minutes. What happens when you finally reach the girl but it's basically too late for her to reach the movie theatre in time? Had you left a message and she decides she wants to go see the movie, she would be on her way to the movie theatre to meet you. Had you not, she would be completely unaware of your plans and there would be a chance you would reach her too late. We can actually use math to figure this out.

Imagine the movie starts in one hour and it'll take the girl half an hour to get to the theatre from where she is. You call in 30 min intervals. Unfortunately, you somehow miss reaching her 30 min before the movie starts but didn't leave a message. Well, you'll most likely try again 15 min before the movie starts. You get through, but unfortunately, the girl realizes she's too far away to make it in time so an evening watching a movie with the girls is now out of the question.

However, if you left a message, there's a better chance you won't miss out on the movie date, provided she wants to spend time with you that is. Let's say you left a message and she receives it and decides she wants to go to the movies with you. Half an hour before the movie starts, she starts heading for the theatre. During that time, you call but miss her. When you call her again and make it through, she's already 15 min closer to the theatre and will make it to the theatre in time to use you for your money and a free movie since you are in her Friend Zone^_^

The idea is that leaving a message allows for your message (not in the literal sense but in terms of why you're calling in the first place) to be heard in between attempted calls had you not left a message. That alone makes it worth it to leave a message.

You're doing NO ONE any favors by simply hanging up.

Next time, leave a damn message.

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