I love call screening! It means I can check out who is calling and either ignore the call or answer, according to my mood and the call’s value to me.

My phone, a Google Pixel 8 Pro, has an app that screens all unfamiliar numbers and asks me what I want to do about them. I can answer the call or I can let the app give the caller an AI-generated message asking them to say why they are calling. After that, It’s up to me whether I call them back or send their message into the abyss.

Most of the time, the AI-generated message is enough to make callers hang up without leaving a message. They are usually marketing calls or scams of some sort, and I don’t need any of them in my life.

Recently, though, an unusual event has caused some unfamiliar callers to reach out to my phone. My eldest son’s house, in which I used to live, was recently damaged by a fire in a neighbouring property. The neighbour’s house is, sadly, unlivable, but fortunately no-one was injured.

My son’s house is livable but needs repair. As a consequence he and his wife are now having to learn about and negotiate insurance issues and all that they entail. My name is on the insurance as a title-holder and, as such, emails and phone calls are sometimes coming to me. At first, I was ignoring them as I was not expecting them, but now I am forwarding emails and I am listening to messages and passing on essential information.

It seems that the interested parties, who may be the insurance company, the people who assess the damage, or the tradespeople who might want to do the work, do not all have the necessary contact information to reach my son and his wife. My name is at the top of the list and so they contact me, and thus I am screening their calls. I pass along the necessary information and hoping that the people who need to reach one another are able to do that.

As I think about this it occurs to that call-screening could affect other areas of life.

If you are using a dating site, would a call-screening message encourage or deter a potential date?

If you are job-hunting, would an employer leave a message asking an applicant to arrange an interview, or would they just hang up and go on to the next person?

If you are a politician canvassing for election, would you leave an AI-generated reply to the AI-generated call-screen message? If so, would the robots reach any kind of consensus?

If you were stranded without your phone and called a family member from an unfamiliar number, would they respond to your cry for help?

I can tell you now that if I were stranded without my phone, I would  not be able to call my children on anyone’s phone because I have not memorized any numbers. I realized that fact today when a representative of a fire damage rehabilitation company asked me for my eldest son’s number and I had to look it up.

So, yes, I am delighted that technology has brought me call screening. However, I feel a wistful longing for the days when I answered anonymous calls and when I remembered phone numbers.