call display

When call display was first invented, in the olden days, I thought of it as kind of invasion of privacy.  We completely lost the element of surprise regarding what was going to happen when you picked up the receiver.  Would I be pleased?  Embarrassed?  Caught off guard?  That little thrill of not knowing Who that went down my spine was yanked from my life.

I think we were better people then.  We had to be ready for anything.  We had to answer the phone with great charity lest it was someone of import, or one of the Less Fortunate.  The un-call-displaying-phones were a great hallmark of the human capacity to adapt.  Where are we now, in the information age?  Not only is all information, relevant or not, interesting or not, accurate or not, available to us on a moment's notice, but we even know who's calling before we pick up.  It is like having an unnatural and un-asked-for God-like power.  Like flying in an airplane. 

A bit like that anyway.

Like Pavlov's dog, the ringing of the phone still gives me some small thrill of anticipation and wonder.  But it is stymied immediately by the bold and silent announcement across the phone screen.  On the days we are feeling low, perhaps we should consider the untold effect that call display is having on our lives.

Perhaps we should shield ourselves with a teeny bit of masking tape.