Ring, ring; click. ‘Hi, you’ve reached X. Please don’t leave a message, but text me…”. And just like that, I’m subtly put in my place; my time deemed less valuable than that of the person whose mobile I called. It’s me who must stop, ring off, type out a message so that they needn’t waste a few seconds it would take to ring their own voicemail. Voicemail is going the way of landlines: strictly for old people and losers. Like every great office power play, the ‘no voicemail’ trick started at the top – Downing Street staff were early adopters – but spread like wildfire. Recently I got a ‘text only’ brushoff from a builder, a sure sign of pending recovery in the construction industry”. (Gaby Hinsliff, The Times. London).

Courtesy and consideration for others is a hallmark of Epicureanism. Epicurus would have welcomed the cellphone for the benefits it offers for instant information and making busy lives more efficient. But making people type out messages instead of leaving verbal ones, especialy when they are trying to spend their money with you, is incredibly rude. Those who feel, like me, that their friendships are secure enough for the ten minutes it takes to walk down the street, feel threatened by the hoards of people walking at you, heads down, fingers busy, minds in neutral, barely avoiding you ( and the passing buses) while they search for the letter Y Presumably they can’t simply leave a voice message because no one will answer.