alt Hacker News> Alarmingly, some Gen Zers don't say "hello" when they answer a phone call; they expect the caller to just start talking.
I'm an older Gen-X and I've stopped doing this unless I recognize the caller. I'm not going to give a scammer anything to build a voice print on. I also use the stock greeting for voicemail instead of a personal one.
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Also most spam calls seem to just hang up when a call connects to silence.
Yes, people think this behaviour came out of nowhere. It’s because if you are younger, phone calls are not the default (only two friends ever call me) and overwhelmingly are scammers or salespeople.
also X, also using generic vm, but thinking of switching to recording of fax machine max volume
Same here (xennial), it confuses lot of telemarketers out of their script, if someone start talking with me I ask them "do I have contract with you?", if the answer is "no", I hang up, since it's clearly someone selling something.
related call scene from Fight Club how Tyler properly answers the phone (not answering but calling back and his first response is "Who is this?"):
I've been actively trying to think of a better way to answer the phone without sounding rude. but without giving up my name or mentally accepting whoever is on the other side (like hello tends to do)
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Y-Zer myself and I do the same thing. I never initiate the communication when called unless I am expecting it or I know who the caller is. Otherwise, they'll know when someone picked up because their side will stop ringing, and they'll only get awkward silence until they start talking. Often times it's an automated voice system that will not begin until prompted by the callee, so it hits a timeout and hangs up.
The number of calls I get where it's either dead silence in the other end or clearly a call center based on the noise can only be categorized as "too much".