Whatever Happened To The Busy Signal?

When was the last time you got a busy signal?

I can’t even remember. Everyone I know has call-waiting or voice mail that picks up instead. I miss the busy signal. It allowed me the opportunity to decide what to do if the call wasn’t connected. I don’t always need to leave a message … the point of the call was to reach out and connect to someone. Nothing urgent, no reason to interrupt, no reason to begin the modern version of “tag, you’re it.”

The busy signal was a pause in our movement forward. A moment to choose our next action. A moment to decide what is important. For good or for bad, we are losing those built-in pauses in our busy lifes. People (related to the always powerful ‘they’) say that losing the busy signal means quicker and more efficient communication. And, yes it is comforting to know that in an emergency, someone could get through. I could argue the stress of always being connected is too high. Or, that our parent’s generation did just fine without a phone with them at all times.

But this is more personal I think. This isn’t about staying connected to the world. To me this is about understanding what we want is not always at the top of the world’s list. That our ideas, our communications our need to share something can sometimes benefit from that cosmic pause button. In anger it gives us a chance to be reasonable before we lash out. In love, it proves that “absence makes the heart grow fonder.” In friendship, it reminds us that we all have lifes that are busy and that each time we touch someone important it matters.

At least with a busy signal, for a moment, my life slowed down.  And, I don’t think that was such a bad thing.