Back in 1980 Robert Palmer released a song called Looking for Clues.
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In it he sang, "It's crazy but I'm frightened by the sound of a telephone, oh yeah.
"I'm worried that the caller might have awful news, oh my.
"Who knows these days where on earth the money goes, oh yeah.
"No doubt we could put it to a better use, oh my."
At the time the song was released I was still young and carefree, and struggled to relate to this level of anxiety.
After all, in 1980 telephone calls generally meant chats with friends or invitations to go out somewhere ... you know, in the days when we did things by actually speaking to people rather than texting or sending some other form of message.
But these days are not so carefree, and the phone call anxiety is real and seemingly here to stay.
It seems every day I'm bombarded by calls from scammers claiming to be from banks I have no account with, credit card companies I don't use, and online shopping companies I've never dealt with all trying to weasel money out of me by claiming to be legitimate.
Then there are seemingly endless calls from solar installers, salespeople and those claiming to be from an array of charities, although for all I know they might well be scammers as well.
Often these calls come back-to-back, invariably from overseas call centres but routed through Australian numbers in an effort to gain an air of legitimacy.
And if I ignore an unknown number coming from Brisbane, the phone stars ringing again from someone in Bairnsdale, Victoria, followed by another from someone in Kempsey, NSW, or from Sydney.
The cycle just keeps rolling on.
And while Robert Palmer asked, "Who knows these days where on earth the money goes," it seems there is an endless stream of scammers wanting to put it in their grubby little hands.
And yes, Mr Palmer, I think we can indeed put it to a better use
But these days I have discovered a new joy ... the block caller button.
Call from a number I don't recognise and not leave a message?
Blocked, blocked and blocked again, and my phone has become much more quiet.
No need to be looking for clues about the solution to the constant calls.
It seems that unlike Mick Jagger, I can get some satisfaction after all.
