Some young people say they shun the doorbell simply because they see no need for it. “It’s like antiquated, knocking on doors is so far back that it predates any experience people my age have ever had,” says Drake Rehfeld, a junior at the University of Southern California....By the way, if doorbells come to mean an outsider — a nonfriend — has arrived in person, and people don't answer the door, it will become impossible to do that kind of politics that we've always heard is so important: going door-to-door. And what will happen to the religions that make a big practice out of going door-to-door? And the schoolkids that drum up cash by selling bad popcorn and candy?
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My wife and I am both going deaf but our dog is the doorbell and we have no trouble hearing her.
She doesn't wait for the doorbell to ring. She barks if anyone walks up to the house
Don't worry. When the Thought Police come to take you away, you'll know they're at the door.
But how do you have a no-knock raid if you can't ring the bell?
They're terrified of knocks at the door because their residences usually reek of weed and have weed and paraphernalia sitting out in the open all over the place. Not saying there's anything wrong with getting blazed but they take the dirty lazy stoner stereotype to heights not seen in decades.
Well, if it's unwanted solicitors you're concerned about...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V6gAolyi1Bg
Doorbell knocked.
Fragile snowflakes.
People don't "pop in" unannounced anymore?
It was a recurring theme on Curb Your Enthusiasm.
People delivering packages sometimes ring the doorbell and always do so when a signature is required.
I get religious groups once a year. Four people in a nice car, they branch out two to a house.
I've found out that they don't visit houses with a loose Doberman in the yard, and they stand well off if you're scything the lawn, over the course of years.
I used to read a paragraph of Harold Bloom on Jehovah's Witnesses to JW's but they just looked puzzled. Not Bloom's favorite religion. See The American Religion.
Not wanting to answer the door to strangers is fairly common among elderly people as well. I have a friend who put a "do not ring doorbell" notice on her door. A lot of people ignore it.
And what about Halloween?
I always answer the door if someone knocks. And I can hear it. My dog can't, and neither can the wife. I can hear people coming up the steps to the door.
Young adults --- or at least, the sort of young adults who appear in big-city newspapers --- disproportionately live in sketchy neighborhoods where trepidation about strangers ringing the doorbell is well advised. Like every previous generation, eventually they will get older and move to the suburbs, in no small part because out there they can do small things like answer the door without fear. Business, politics, and religion will go on without much noticing.
Rather than knocking, Navajos will park outside and wait for you to notice that they're there. (Not "normal" neighborhoods with sidewalks and such).
I hooked our doorbell to the house alarm.
When someone pushes it, the house alarm goes off, with horns honking and sirens blaring.
You should see them run!
My wife has told me, that if I don't change it back, she is going to have me committed to the insane asylum, and there won't be any fucking appeals!
I guess I better put it back to normal...
Girl Scout cookies and other school fund raising sales are a great way to meet the kids of other homeowners that I know in the neighborhood....it's person to person if only for a few structured minutes. Great chance to be generous too.
...and they stand well off if you're scything the lawn...
Heh. Most effective if you also wear a hoodie. Hood up.
Ann's doorbell reaction is my telephone reaction.
And it brings back memories of selling Boy Scout Exposition tickets when I was 10. That was a true charitable donation, It was scary ringing doorbells to see what reception you got from the older folks. But they all had beautiful landscaped entrances and fancy doors.
I guess the ones who never answered the door were grouchy old Professors.
Halloween must be hell for these people.
I don't want to live in a world where it's weird to answer the front door.
Every kid that comes to our house to play with my kids (14 and 9) ring the doorbell. Every. Damn. One. Even though I can see them through the glass door and tell them to hold on while I get the respective child they are looking for.
I have three dogs that go bananas.
"When someone pushes it, the house alarm goes off, with horns honking and sirens blaring."
I'm still laughing at the scene. Tears in my eyes.
Many years ago, when I lived in an apartment in LA, a nice Jehovah's Witness lady came to the door one Sunday and I invited her in and let her tell me her story.
The following Sunday she was back. I told her I had already heard the story and then she told me I was the only one who had ever invited her in.
I always answer the door, but then I am the sort of person who has no problem telling a stranger I don't want to buy what they are selling, or that I don't want to listen to any spiel they are giving.
Just put in a door bell button but don't hook it up. They'll leave after a while.
I've twice had religious groups stop at my house. The first group, I had spent most of a nice afternoon painting the front porch and my mother's wheelchair ramp. I stopped, looked at my semiprofessional handiwork, thought to myself, "We don't get many visitors out in the country. Do I really need a sign?"
I put an obvious "Wet Paint" sign up anyways.
Went back inside the house to clean up. Doorbell rings. The religious group in question ignored my obvious sign and walked up the wheelchair ramp onto my porch.
They did not convert me that day.
The second time, I was laying brick for a retaining wall at the side of the driveway. Guy pulls into my driveway, gets out and asks if I want to talk about Jesus. I said, "Sure. Do you know how to lay brick?"
He left. I haven't heard from any such groups for a few years. I think the word is out about me.
Doorbells? Hell, my landline ringing is something I now assume is just a (political/charitable/commercial) solicitor, and either answer or don't accordingly.
There was a time, before Millennials were born, when people who knocked or rang you up..."never for money, always for love."
Oh, grow up and grow a pair!
Doorbells? Hell, my landline ringing is something I now assume is just a (political/charitable/commercial) solicitor, and either answer or don't accordingly.
Jim Gaffigan (comedian) does a bit about that. He says he and his wife don't answer their landline because, "no one we know has that number."
I laughed about that, then called my cable company to cancel my landline. The only reason I still had it was that it was part of the bundle, but I had decided to "cut the cord." I found out that if you do that they have a "special" deal that they only give to current customers.
All the local channels, 10 basic cable channels of your choice, and one premium channel, the music channels, as in classic rock, country, etc, for $20 a month. Since I was keeping them for Internet access I thought that was a pretty good deal.
I didn't cut the cord, but I did get rid of the landline.
I have my landline via the Internet VoIP. It's a little box called the OBi200 that plugs into the router, and I use google voice for the phone number.
Google voice is neat, because it rings all the phones. The landline, and the cell phones. Whoever picks-up first is the winner.
For a landline I have my old touch-tone phone, which I like because it is comfy on my ear. It doesn't have caller-ID though, so I just look at the cell phone which is ringing too.
The landline is my wife's. She has an iPhone but is still mystified about it.
I get random calls on my cellphone, too. The Do not call list died years ago.
It is weird. Answer it in MT, but not AZ. Got a surveillance camera on the door, so can see who it is. It's a brand new neighborhood, and had a constant stream of people by wanting to do contracting work for us - landscaping, concrete, etc. Mostly Hispanic, which is fine. Probably going to give the backyard to the brother of our next door neighbor who did such a good job there. And one older Black guy who came by every month or two trying to sell steaks. Sorry, we get grass feed beef, with known providence, essentially free, here in MT. And some religious people. So, mostly just don't answer the door in AZ. Thinking of trying a "Ring" system this year. We shall see. Too many home automation apps already on my iPads.
Here in MT, it is rural enough that we don't get the constant stream of people we don't know coming to the door. FedEx a couple times a month. One of the people from the other 9 houses in the neighborhood (All of whom we know, and we need to be nice to). The rare kids raising money for something. Halloween. And maybe once a month someone proselytizing their religion. Works out to one or two a week. So, we mostly answer the door.
My point, I think is that it isn't just kids, but society in general has gone this way. 50 years ago, growing up, it would have been unthinkable not to answer the door if you were there. Now? A lot of people don't.
Doorbell or landline ringing means "What fresh hell can this be?"
Weenies.
A few years ago, the LDS came to our door. I saw them coming well before they got to our house. I purposefully let my son who was at the time 16 or 17 answer. I knew what was coming, but he had no idea. I thought it would be a good lesson for him as to how to handle a middling hard sell - a test of how well he could be gracious and respectful but not give an inch on what he would do and not do. It was an excellent opportunity for that and he mentions it from time to time as good but complicated experience for him.
He ended up not converting, but having a respectful appreciation for another church and another (kinda) culture.
My apartment complex is gated. A visitor is supposed to call the person he is visiting via a callbox, which rings the person's phone, and the person being visited opens the gate for his visitor by pressing a button on his own phone. What do visitors do? The drive up to the call box and call on their cell phones to ask "How do I open the gate?"
"The landline is my wife's. She has an iPhone but is still mystified about it.
I get random calls on my cellphone, too. The Do not call list died years ago."
Got landlines at both houses as "lifelines". Ringers are turned off and forwarded to my cell phone. "Mystified" by an iPhone is probably an understatement here. Partly it is a vision thing, but mostly, I think, a refusal to learn modern technology. Always humorous when she talks on my iPhone, esp after I used the keypad to access a business. She is talking along, with a constant string of (DTMF) beeps, as her cheek continually presses the phone's "keys". She won't turn the phone over to me so I can close the keypad until the person at the other end gets frustrated enough that they are ready to hang up on her. I keep offering, and she keeps telling me "no" while on the phone. And, of course, we use my iPhone to make the calls, because it has the Contacts list, which she steadfastly refuses to use in her "dumb" phone. Her son could provide her with one generation old iPhones for free, but she refuses to even consider any phone that doesn't have keys that she can feel. She found an old Motorola flip phone of hers the other day, and wants to see if we can get it to work. One that we replaced maybe 5 years ago (she isn't the only one - my father used one until his death last year, and one brother still uses one) because she wore it out. Landlines are there so that when I am not there, and her old style phone dies, either of natural causes, or through failure to get it charged, and she needs to call 911, etc. I bought a nice flip phone last year with large keys as a backup for her, but she left it back in AZ because she never used it. A phone that I pay every month for service on. In a drawer 1,200 miles away.
I need to make sure that all my numbers are in the No Call list, which I hope to do this next month or two. Currently, I have better than a half dozen numbers, and can't guarantee that they are all on the list. Then, I need to figure out if I can monetize their flagrant disregard for such. We shall see. I would guess that better than 80% of the calls I get are junk calls. I figure that if the number isn't in my Contacts list, and they don't leave a voicemail, that it was some sort of junk call. Someone that s trying to call me today with a blocked number. It might be that be of my clients, but I have told him multiple times that I don't answer 'Unknown" calls.
Partly, the "mystified" about modern technology is generational. My partner steadfastly refuses to learn. 6-8 years ago, she really, really, wanted a new laptop for Christmas. Her kids wanted me to chip in for it with them. I declined, pointing out that it was a waste of money. Sure enough, she used it maybe once or twice in that time. It's a high end HP, that cost maybe $1500 at the time. Her son took it last time he visited to replace the clock battery and upgrade to Win 10, since Vista is no longer viable. She did remember the password, which surprised me, but last time I tried to use it, couldn't because she had forgotten the password to her router (for the Internet that she paid for for most of that time, and never used).
To me, as a patent atty (and software engineer before that), it is her technophobia that is mystifying. But I am reconciled that I will inevitably fall far enough behind that it will seem almost like magic to me, as it already does for those of my generation who were not as involved over the decades with technology. Not looking forward to that, but figure it is inevitable.
"I hooked our doorbell to the house alarm."
I love it. But I don't need to do that because the sound of my (mixed) pit bull and the other mutt barking is enough to make anyone turn and run. and the dogs don't wait for them to get to the door.
This is the same dog who hides under the table during a thunderstorm.
Lots of good advice here.
At our house, the postman always rings twice.
I still have both a doorbell and a land line that ring. I sometimes answer them. Positively antediluvian, I know.
This is what I find odd: constantly having a cell phone at your side which requires your carrying it around with you even when you're at home. That's a level of dependency well outside my comfort zone. The expectation that every text will be acknowledged or answered without delay is far more intrusive on my privacy than a ringing doorbell or phone. This annoys a lot of my friends, but there you are.
So, you've arrived at your friend's house (or at the entrance to his mother's basement) and texted him to announce you're at the door. Once inside, do you actually talk to one another, or do you continue texting?
*doorbell*
voice outside home: Burgular!
voice inside home: Are you sure you're not an encyclopedia salesman?
--- Monty Python
"Halloween must be hell for these people."
Nope. Turn off the lights. All the lights. Outside lights. Inside lights.
Go out to dinner and hope the little shit who fell down the driveway looking for free food has already gone home and his/her parents can't remember the place they intended to sue.
Joking, of course.
About going out to dinner.
The expectation that every text will be acknowledged or answered without delay is far more intrusive on my privacy than a ringing doorbell or phone.
My adult children do not answer the phone. To reach them you have to text them.
If you leave a voicemail, you may get a call a week later, by which time I have forgotten what I wanted.
To me, as a patent atty (and software engineer before that), it is her technophobia that is mystifying.
My wife loves her iPad but I had to remind her to use the WiFi as my cellphone bills were getting astronomical for data use.
Her iPhone is a mystery.
Doesn't anyone have neighbors? I always answer, as do my neighbors when I knock on their doors. Where do you people live? this is weird
For us the doorbell is most often Amazon. Ignoring the bell would be non-productive.
"I said, "Sure. Do you know how to lay brick?" "
Hah! If he was really sincere, he would've at least helped you while talking about Jesus.
"If you leave a voicemail, you may get a call a week later, by which time I have forgotten what I wanted."
Please tell me you're NOT one of those people whose voice mails go like this:
"Hi, Kirk, it's Michael. Give me a call!"
Why on earth not give at least a tiny hint as to the content? E.g.:
"Hi, Kirk, it's Michael. Hey, I just won the lottery and I think I'm going to sail to Fiji in a few weeks. I don't suppose you could drop everything and come along?. Give me a call!"
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