CULTURE/SOCIETY and SCIENCE/TECHNOLOGY: Bring Back the Busy Signal

This is a piece of Ira Flatow, the host of Talk of the Nation: Science Friday on NPR, from the Science Friday blog. I don't know if I agree with him. I know I don't feel guilty about sending people to voice mail if I'm on the phone or busy. I never take another call unless I'm sure it's important. I guess it's all how you use technology. But I thought Ira makes some good points, so I'm reprinting it here. - OlderMusicGeek

Bring Back the Busy Signal
posted by Ira Flatow on Thursday, July 12. 2007

Not too long after 9/11 , I did away with “call-waiting.” My priorities changed. I no longer felt the urgency to interrupt a perfectly good conversation with “can I put you on hold for a minute while I get this?” I could devote my total attention to the call at hand and not have to feel pressured. It made life simpler:

At first, I thought I’d have to apologize. But the very first caller applauded my decision. Instead of anger, the excited voice on the other end expressed amazement.

“You have a busy signal,” she said. “When I called and tried to get through I didn’t get your voice mail box, or a recorded message telling me to leave a message, to take a hike. I got that beep-beep-beep of a busy-signal, I hadn’t heard in years. No one has a busy-signal any more, except YOU!”

I sort of knew that when I brought back my busy signal, I’d have a lot of explaining to do. so I was ready.

“That’s right,” I said. “I disconnected my call waiting and went retro. Back to the good old days of the busy-signal.”

If you think about it, the busy-signal makes a definitive statement. It says “yes, I am here, and I am busy,” It doesn’t say “maybe I’m here, screening calls to avoid you.” It’s an honest message, refreshingly honest in this political double-talk era. The busy signal is not pretentious; it doesn’t command attention. It just does it’s job and does it well.

And much to my surprise the busy signal keeps your party interested and prepared. By attesting to the fact that you are there, literally, in your office, the busy signal reassures the caller to “just be patient, try again.” There is no ambiguity. Callers, as this one did, will sit and wait patiently knowing that there is a live body on the other end, waiting to respond. And if they really want to talk to you, they do call back.

Voice mail is a tool for deception. “Gee, I must have missed your voice mail. It never works in my office.” The busy signal takes away temptation; no need to make up a story about pushing the wrong button that “whoops” erased the caller you’re trying to avoid. And no more hating yourself for hanging up on a good call to take one that tried to enlist your vote.

The busy signal is the kind of simple technology we would have to invent if it had never existed. “Wouldn’t it be great if some genius found an automatic way of telling people I’m busy, that I can’t talk now? What a great device that would be.”

So let’s bring back the simple busy signal. It never really went away; it’s just been in storage for a few years while we went on a crazy, heads-in-the-sand binge. But our sanity is finally coming back. And it should be, too.

A link to the original piece on the Science Friday blog
A link to the Science Friday blog
A link to the Science Friday website