Do you answer numbers you don’t recognize?

In case you missed it, here’s a story that made national news, but highlighted here from New York Daily News:

Lost hiker ‘didn’t recognize the number,’ ignored rescuers’ calls

I had no words when I first saw the headline, and none came as I looked further into the story.

I admit I’ve got it bad;  close friends and family know if they need to call me from a number I don’t recognize, without a heads up text, I probably won’t answer the phone. 

To save a click, a hiker got lost in Colorado, and after failing to return within a reasonable time, Search and Rescue began looking. The hiker admitted they got lost and basically kept at it until they found their way back to their car. Can you imagine how over it this hiker had to be to not even answer an unknown number WHEN LOST IN THE WOODS??

To be fair, the spam calls are out of control. According to this article from March 2021 (https://www.businessinsider.com/why-so-many-spam-robocalls-how-to-stop-them-2021-3), a February 2021 Insider survey conducted on SurveyMonkey Audience found that 46% of Americans reported receiving spam phone calls on their cell phone every day, with another 24% receiving them multiple times per week.

With numbers that high, it is no wonder people aren’t answering the phone to hear about their “car’s extended warranty” (one of the highest spam calls). Don’t even get me started on the texts about being “a winner!”, a “special opportunity”, or the click that will allow me to “make money today!” (hard eye roll)

While taking such a hard stance against unknown numbers does have some drawbacks (job searching first comes to mind), it is my fervent hope that more people and entities realize cold calls are not the best way to initiate contact with people these days. 

My golden rule is ‘if it’s important, they’ll leave a message’. I will at least google the number and see what comes up if 1) I’m near a computer, or 2) if I see the same number has tried to call me over a couple of days. 

If I get repeated calls from the same unknown number in a short time frame, I will answer the phone, just in case there’s been an accident or something. (I do not advise having me as your overall emergency contact – it make take a few tries to get me.)

Obviously this intrepid hiker and I have different measurements for worst-case scenario: I’d like to think if I was lost with presumable spotty cell phone service, if a repeated call came through, I’d answer the phone – if only to try to get some help.

Are you team answer or team don’t answer the phone?