When phone calls turn deadly.

Seriously. This has been stuck in my craw for a couple of months now. I thought I could just let it go, but I can't. Mainly because this could potentially cost someone their life and I can't live
with that possibility so I have to do what I can to get the word out about this.

I had a caller that tied up my only phone for about an hour before I was able to block the calling number. The same number had called, hung up, called right back, hung up, called back, and kept doing this over and over again. I don't know how they/it could have called and called back so fast, but it/they did. Before I could even tap on the keypad of my iPhone to block it, they/it would call back and interrupt me so I couldn't block it, this went on for close to an hour before I was able to place two outgoing calls fast enough to block a call so I could move through the screens so I could read and tap on the correct selections to block that number. Luckily, it was only an exercise in extreme aggravation, but for about AN HOUR, in that much time many different disaster scenarios could have played out.

I'm really thankful none of them did, but over the last couple of months the "could haves' would pop into my head here-and-there and then I'd think about other people and what if it happened to someone who lives alone on the only phone they have and what if they didn't get it to stop, like I did, how long would it have continued for? What if someone needed to call for emergency help? What if someone missed the call that would've let them be there for that last moment with a loved one to say their final good-bye. I knew I had to put this story out there and let people know this happened at least once, to me. It could happen again, it could still be happening.

Please, pass this information along to your loved ones.  I could have had a true life-or-death emergency and my only phone would have been out-of-service due to that robo- or prank- call. This is totally unacceptable. Whomever was responsible for that act should be very ashamed of themselves. And I truly hope this doesn't cost someone else their life or the life of someone they love.

To extrapolate this further - I think this is part of a larger problem - a problem that stems from politicians and corporations not respecting us, our thoughts, concerns, needs/desires, or our time.

We need to take back our dignity. We need to demand that our privacy and our personal time are respected. We need to hound our elected officials to support and enact laws that do exactly that. We need to use our power (aka: our purchase power / our money) to stop supporting the "demand" for bigger, faster, fancier technology. Instead, let's put our financial power behind the demand for more accuracy, more privacy, for cell phones that have better sound in more areas, that can be tracked easier by parents and grandparents, technology that is 'hack-proof''.  My old iPhone 4s is still a solid little phone, but corporate America took network technology way beyond what the 4s hardware could handle well. Great. Some things work OK, but it certainly struggles now. I've got an iPhone 6+ that will be either 18 months old or two years old in November, and it handles all the new bells and whistles pretty well, but of course, it doesn't do the 3-D touch of the new 6s, but there are rumors of an iPhone 7 coming out in November, so..... and there is my point exactly!!!!!!

There are all these versions running around, they all work to varying degrees, and there's this constant push to do bigger, better and make additional changes so come November, my little, solid, looks-like-new-perfectly-fine-iPhone 4S probably won't work at all with whatever the newest OS will be.....and still, up to this time, none of them are even water resistant, shatter proof, they don't have great sound without the ear buds because they don't have stereo speakers; they don't have great cell reception "everywhere". Why can't I buy a phone and have a reasonable expectation that it won't be outdated and basically very expensive garbage before I get it home? And, then, what about computers?....why are we willing to pay, and pay dearly at that, for something that works when it feels like it?

Seriously, if you showed up for a massage and I sent you into the studio, and then came into the room and said, "I'm feeling a bit peckish today, so I'm not going to work on you. You may listen to the soft music and lie upon my heated table for an hour for, double the price." Let yourself out quietly when you leave. Thank You." Would be ready to come back tomorrow for session 2.0? Of course not! So...why do we not only let techno geeks do this, but applaud them for it and pay them even more?


UPDATE:
7:55 PM on Sunday (4/17/2016) and "60 Minutes" JUST underlined this point with their show! How wonderful it feels to be vindicated by a syndicated and respected national news program!!! Hah! and I am only a grandma from cow-town USA...but I know what I know and I know that I am willing to use the same old phone for three or even five years while they corporations work on making them safe and hack proof! Let's lock down the technology we have, let's put all our brain power to making it secure before we worry about making it fancier.