since when did...

...wanting to talk to someone on the phone become "forward?"

this has happened to me more than once in the past few weeks, where someone writes to me, whether on a personals website or, in one case, on myspace. i propose that we talk on the phone, as i have a theory that our e-mail persona is one thing, a phone persona is another thing (closer to the actual), and the in-person is of course the real deal -- and they balk at the suggestion of talking on the phone. one person even wrote "I'll give you a call," but since I hadn't given him my number, I sent it to him, and when we met in person he said "do you always give your phone number out to guys you meet online?" i had to look back at our e-mails to realize that my response should have been, "well how the hell did you expect to call me if I didn't give it to you?!?" and then i've been e-mailing with another person and i proposed that we talk on the phone and he balked and now we're trapped in a conversation spiral that keeps bouncing back and forth between running and work. and then there is another person who, after a few e-mails were exchanged, asked my for my number, i sent it to him, and he did has yet to e-mail back or call (it's been a week). so random! perhaps i need to improve my quality control, but i seem to be getting the sense that there is a new set of "rules" governing when you e-mail versus when you switch to phone to when you meet in person. i think it's all kind of crap because the only way you are going to know whether there is any click is by meeting in person. maybe you can screen some people out by e-mail or phone conversations, but i'm not sure that's the best way to make judgments. i don't know....i guess in the end it all comes back to the fact that someone who is really a good fit for me probably won't be intimidated by the idea of talking to me on the phone.

oy vey.

~md