racoma.com.phJ. Angelo Racoma on technology, economics, writing, problogging, and getting things done

When we moved into our current apartment about six months ago, we got ourselves a telephone line (for the DSL I needed for work) and phone service (it’s just PhP 300 on top of the DSL fee, after all). I wasn’t too happy with having a single telephone apparatus with our two-storey apartment, so I thought we should get a cordless phone, too. After much window shopping, I decided on the Vtech 2151, which came with caller ID and a digital answering machine. And it was cheap (only about PhP 2,400 or so).

I’ve always had this fascination for answering machines. I love how you could record wacky messages for your callers (like Hello … Hello … Please leave a message.). I dig how you could monitor calls before actually answering (even if you have caller ID this is really fun). It’s cool how you could call in from a remote location to check if anyone left messages.

Most of all, I’m really fascinated with how people talk when there’s nobody at the other end of the line.

Two-way interaction is normal. You talk, the other person reacts. It’s even a whole different thing when you’re talking in person than when you’re just on the phone. After all, communication is mostly body language and tone. The actual content of the message is just a small part of what you get to communicate.

It’s helluva lot different when you’re recording a message and talking to no one on the other line. It feels weird. It’s like holding a video camera to your face, recording a message. You try to imagine someone is at the other end. But no one’s there.

Or at least that’s how I feel. And I would think that’s how most of my callers feel.

My answering machine hasn’t met much action in the four months it’s been installed. It has recorded something in the likes of a couple of dozen messages. And the legitimate ones I could probably just count with my fingers. Most just hang up (I know who you are! I have you on CID!).

I don’t think we’re much of an _answering machine culture_.

You see it often in the western TV shows and films. People like leaving messages on answering machines (or voicemail as some would prefer). But leaving voicemail seems too confrontational. It’s like saying _hey you weren’t there so here’s what I have to say_. And Filipinos are not too confrontational. And we probably feel downright weird monologuing.

We’re more of a _texting culture_. We probably prefer to text rather than call because we can escape the responsibility of actually relaying a message other than the words that we speak or write (and it’s cheaper, too). But the message then becomes bland. There is no body language. There are no intonations. There’s just words flashing out of a small screen.

Same with email. Probably same with IM.

I know it’s a serious caller–or rather a caller with an important/serious/interesting message–when he or she really takes the time to leave a message. Even if the voice message seems incoherent, or the English (or Tagalog) is bad, or the background is noisy, it’s all right with me. The point is that the person tried to reach me (or anyone here at my place), and in the absence of human response, he still tries to at least inform me that he would like to talk.

For more useless reading about the answering machine culture, check out these great finds. Old (and longish), but still interesting.