cell phones – Topical Fruit

The Five Most Annoying Things That Can Happen with Customer Support

How much do Americans hate sitting on hold with customer support?

A poll found over a quarter of us would rather do our taxes, go to the dentist, or stand in line at the DMV. (We’re not sure we buy it, but over one in five also said they’d rather spend a night in jail or shave their head.)

Only 46% of customer service issues actually get resolved. It takes an average of three attempts and 90 minutes on hold to make it happen.

Here are the five most annoying things that can happen when dealing with customer support:

1. Having to repeat details when you’re transferred or get disconnected.

2. Having to call or email multiple times to solve a problem.

3. Only having one option to reach out. Like you have to call, no emails.

4. Not being able to reach a real person quickly and easily.

5. Terrible hold music.

A few more that made the top ten include: A bad connection, or having a hard time hearing them… not being able to resolve an issue online… and too many button options, like “To talk to a customer service rep, press 9.”

Phones Are Ruining Family Conversations… and It’s Not Just the Kids

Trying to have a heart-to-heart with your kid these days is damn-near impossible, since you’re competing with TikTok, Snapchat, and whatever’s trending on YouTube.

A new survey found that kids under 18 are holding a phone 52% of the time their parents are trying to talk to them. That’s right… half your valuable wisdom is probably getting drowned out by memes and cat videos.

And before you roll your eyes at “these kids today,” let’s be real: parents aren’t much better. The same survey says partners are glued to their phones 58% of the time during conversations. So basically, everyone’s ignoring everyone.

But at least we’re ignoring each other together.

Only 74% of parents could say they’d had a real, device-free conversation with their kid in the past week. Which means a quarter of families haven’t gone even seven days without someone scrolling mid-sentence. No wonder 78% of parents are worried about losing face-to-face time with their kids.

Some households are trying to fight back with “no phone zones” during dinner, family outings, or movie night. You know, those rare times when you actually want to see each other’s faces instead of the glow of a screen. But enforcing those rules is easier said than done.

So yes, the internet is winning. But the silver lining? At least when your teen pretends to listen while glued to their phone, they can say they “learned it from watching you!” (Gen X’ers will get that reference, if they’re even listening to me.)

A.I. Might Become Your Personal Receptionist

A.I.’s day job is still destroying civilization, but it’s also picking up a side-hustle as your personal answering machine.

AT&T is testing a new “A.I. receptionist” that screens your calls… kind of like a bouncer for your phone. Its job? Block spam, make you look important, and occasionally irritate your grandma when she calls to ask about Netflix.

Here’s how it works: When a call comes in, the bot answers with questions like, “Who may I say is calling?” or “What’s this in regard to?” If the caller gives the right answers, the call gets through. If not, the system hangs up or takes a message. Basically, it’s like caller ID on steroids… with a passive-aggressive personality.

This could be a game-changer for anyone who can’t just ignore numbers they don’t recognize… like doctors, business owners, or people who owe money to six different credit card companies.

There are a couple of catches though.

You might have to interact with the A.I. receptionist yourself, which means you could get interrogated like you’re trying to enter Fort Knox, when you’re just calling a friend. (People would be able to whitelist numbers.)
And yes, it does raise the terrifying possibility of your A.I. and the telemarketer’s A.I. getting stuck in an endless loop of “What is this in regard to?” until the heat death of the universe.

The system will roll out this year for select AT&T customers. No word on when it’ll go nationwide… but hey, at least until the robots take over, your car’s extended warranty guy might finally stop calling. Or, have someone else to talk to.

Have You Ever Wondered How Many “Miles” You Scroll on Your Phone?

If you’ve ever wondered how much exercise your thumb is getting, the answer is… well, probably more than your legs.

A new study just calculated how far people “travel” each year with all that endless phone scrolling. Yeah, they somehow figured out how far your thumb moved, across your screen, in the process of scrolling. Weird times, amirite?

Here are the results, broken down by state:

Topping the list is Arizona, where people scroll an average of 115.4 miles a year. To put that in perspective, that’s about the distance from Phoenix to Tucson.

In other words, Arizonans are essentially hiking the desert with their thumbs. That also works out to nearly nine hours of screen time per day. Nine. Hours. A day.

The rest of the Top Five states are: Washington (108.2 miles), Kentucky (105 miles), Missouri (102 miles), and New Mexico (96 miles). Rounding out the Top Ten are: Texas, Maryland, Louisiana, South Carolina, and Georgia. Clearly, the South is putting in some serious screen work too.

On the flip side, the study didn’t officially rank the least-scrolling states, but data suggests Kansas, Maine, Nebraska, Minnesota, and Massachusetts are down near the bottom. Congrats to them, I guess… they’ll be the ones still making eye contact in public.

In total, the average American now spends 6 hours and 35 minutes per day on screens, which adds up to a wild 2,403 hours per year. We’re also checking our devices an average of 58 times a day, which is either dedication or a collective cry for help.

For the record, the “scroll miles” were calculated by converting screen time into seconds, factoring in the average 6.3-inch phone screen, and then tallying the virtual distance. So yes, science just proved your thumb is basically an endurance athlete.