CLANCY OVERELL | Editor | CONTACT
Skype, Zoom and Facetime are too much of a commitment… and text messages and DMs are easily lost in the other screen time activities of swiping and scrolling.
But the phone call, it’s a proper convo, where two people are giving their undivided attention to one another.
That’s what Malabar man, Frankie Allday (27), has rediscovered during the 2021 Sydney Lockdown.
As an auctioneer by trade, Frankie’s line of work has well and truly been ruled out for the time being.
And as an adult, he’s actually not that interested in video games.
His housemates are good company, but in order to make sure that remains the same, they are making a concerted effort to not overdo the ‘hanging out’.
So, aside from the possibility of his six TV streaming apps actually releasing an enjoyable sitcom or drama series for him in to binge in two nights, he’s actually got nothing to do.
That’s why he’s picked up one of his favourite past times of calling his mate up on the phone and talking to him for 45 minutes.
“I’m good for three or four of these things a night” Frankie tells The Betoota Advocate.
“People forget. You can literally just call up someone for no reason and just yarn to them”
“There’s no ‘oh I had something to tell you’ or ‘how did you go with that thing’… It’s literally just me dialing their number, and them answering and then one of us starts talking about something”
As a milleniall, however, Frankie does face the hurdle of having friends in his age group who get anxious when their phone rings – but he reckons with most of his social circle in lockdown, no one has any excuse to miss a call – and they don’t.
“Yeah everyone is taking what they can get when it comes to human interaction” he says.
Frankie believes the 2021 lockdown has provided him perspective as to why his old man and mum have never really taken to text messages or social media.
“Why would ya?” he says.
“You can get a weeks worth of chit chat down in an hour.”
“Then, pending the battery charge, I’ll just dial up another mate and yarn to them”
“These phone calls are underrated mate”
