Glass Houses ...

It seems angry posts about Telstra are a habit of mine ... one I intend to break ... after this one.

I went for a browse yesterday to see what had happened in the the world. I came across a number of news sites who had posted articles about the recent trend of smartphone wielders becoming ruder.

I read a couple of them, obviously I was bored and killing time. Keywords in the articles titles were "phone", "users",  and "rudeness". Google indexes the whole page peoples, the same keywords don't have to be in every title to get picked up, let me just say one word ... synonym - actually two words ... synonym and vocabulary, but this is a gripe about Telstra, journalistic institutions will have to wait their turn. Here are a couple of the articles, one posted by the International Business Times and another from Adelaide Now. Well unsurprisingly they were all reporting on the same survey. I assume that Telstra, who did the survey, ran around telling everyone who might pay attention that they'd done the survey and sheep being sheep...

I'm not going to discuss the points raised by the survey, all the articles practically state them all verbatim. The crux of the articles (and the survey) is that peoples practice of decent and proper behaviour are waning as they are using their phones in place of being polite or appropriate.

Here's the thing. Ignore the fact that social behaviour changes, ignore the fact that the world only gets busier and being cautiously polite to everyone you encounter can be quite taxing on your available time - regardless of whether you should be polite in a specific situation or not. Ignore the fact that this is a topic which has been discussed over and over again - and through its many iterations has not really introduced any new insights to the debate, but rather - these days, is a vent for people to whine - miserably - about societies faults. One can argue either way, but I find it interesting that the source of this survey is a company like Telstra.

Telstra! Telstra are telling us that we are becoming impolite.

In my opinion, the Telco's are the second most intrusive telemarketers that exist in Australia, second only to the electricity services companies. In my mind Telstra are the worst within the Telcos. That might be my prejudice, but its also my blog, so - whatever.
I come home every night and I've missed at least 5 phone calls. Since I don't use my home phone much, those calls are either my mother, my sister, or someone is trying to sell me something. Easily ninety percent of my phone calls are the latter.

Complaining about telemarketers is like slinging mud back at your aggressor, the topic is abused as much as the debate on social niceties, I'm not saying it isn't. However lets look at this situation. As the world regurgitates the word "rudeness", lets consider its definition. Rudeness is a construct that defines the correctness of an interaction in comparison to what is considered appropriate by the greater majority. Therefore one could also define it as being an acceptable level of politeness compared to what people expect.

This is where I am tickled by this survey. If we only consider the way in which telemarketing plagues us and that Telstra is an active, even agressive participant in such activities. Are they not rude? Privitisation laws have been introduced that, to my understanding, should ban companies from calling me up when I've ask them not to. Despite my efforts to be listed as a person that doesn't want to be contacted by telemarters, these calls are still the majority of the calls I receive. Caveats are always found that allow my phone to be rung by a telemarketer, despite my preference ... talk about rudeness!

Tactics evolve. These days the phone call begins with a deliberate avoidance of the caller identifying his actual purpose. The calls are now initiated by the caller congratulating me because I'm about to have my services bill lessoned. If I ask if I have to change service providers, I'm told that I don't, until I pursue that line of questioning and find that specific argument that requires the telemarketer to admit that "My bill will come from a different company". Further, when I tell them I'm not interested, they insist.
I'm told that all I am doing is not getting a cheaper bill (implying my foolishness), I'm told that the service - phone line, electricity, whatever is coming from the same provider (no shit), but the bill will be from a different company. That is exactly what I asked in the first place. In polite society we call that blatant lie. A lie - kinda rude, yes? I insist that I'm not interested and I try to end the conversation, but tactics evolve. Knowing where I'm heading, the telemarketers ignore your requests and continue to try and sell you their product of the day - is that not rude. Then, when they realise that a sale will not be made, time is money, and it is quicker to just hang up on your ear, then go through the niceties of cleanly ending the conversation...

Telstra actively take part in telemarketing. Telemarketing is an activity that the greater majority are subjected to. The greater majority therefore expect that type of behaviour as a social norm. Therefore it is reasonable to argue that the definition of rudeness is altered in its absolute sense because of the affects of telemarketing on society and Telstra are one of the most active participants in Telemarketing.

Telemarketing is a blasé experience that we endure, but then Telstra publish their results on their survey about rudeness ... What a load of shit. Kettle!