Talk:Telephone phobia

Tag explanations

I feel this article would have been better if moved from Telephobia instead of created new but too many revisions need to be done to fix it just for the little value of [page history]. Added a few tags. {{WikiProject Psychology}} was on the old talk page. The classification remains the same although this article has sources. On the main page I added {{expand}} as there is a lot more research available online on this topic, albeit from [unreliable] [sources]. The {{wikify}} tag was added as the page is an eyesore to read in the current format, however it does contain the required references and should be removed once the page is reformatted. ~ Vince Navarro (talk) 15:35, 15 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Related site

I'm not sure what the approved format would be for adding this to the article, but http://wiki.hypertwins.org/Phone-phobia is a wiki page for discussing phone phobia. I set it up in 2005, when there was absolutely nothing on the 'net about this condition, and it is currently the first hit returned if you Google "phone phobia". It also links to a Ning phone phobia community I created a couple of years ago; this is more active than the wiki page, but may be moving soon because of Ning's recent plans to discontinue free sites, so I wouldn't bother linking to it.

Hope this is useful. --Woozle (talk) 18:54, 17 April 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Bare

I feel as the article has much more room for improvement. The grammar and spelling is spot on, but I feel as though there could be more information in this article such as how they 'cure' or help settle this phobia. --NJames12 (talk) 01:08, 24 September 2011 (UTC)[reply]

What about fear of talking on the phone?

83.74.35.197 (talk) 10:07, 1 October 2019 (UTC)[reply]

This is mentioned several times in the article. What is your point? GrindtXX (talk) 11:24, 1 October 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Image

I think this article could use a lede image. I added the first image below in 2018, and it was deleted after less than a week by an IP with the comment "Stupid photo makes the page worse". It's obviously staged, but I still think it's a pretty good visual-shorthand representation of phone-induced anxiety, and I'm thinking of reinstating it. However, I've also found a couple of alternatives on Commons, also below. (Neither is as good in my opinion: the first suggests dissatisfaction/disgruntlement with the phone conversation, and the second shock at news received, but in neither case is there really a sense of stress or phobia about the phone itself.) What do others think? GrindtXX (talk) 17:44, 9 May 2021 (UTC)[reply]

No comments, so I'm putting the first option back in. GrindtXX (talk) 13:22, 20 May 2021 (UTC)[reply]

I wouldn't call the picture "stupid", I'd use more advanced options like "puerile" and "facile" and "unnecessary". To be even less gracious, staging representations of what you think people with anxiety might look like while they're experiencing said anxiety (which I'm almost certain is not at all what it actually looks like) might come off as disrespectful of the condition. Not enough for people to stage mass protests, mind you, but it doesn't much improve the article's standing either. (Compare the more tasteful choice on a sensitive article like suicide.)

I'm a firm proponent of the idea that there should be a high standard for images that introduce an article, in that they should either be a great illustration of the actual subject, or else they should at least not be unnecessarily distracting (such as prompting me to immediately go to the talk page to indeed find discussion on it); if no image is available to clear that bar, no image is better still than forcing the issue. So yes, "stupid image makes the page worse", I'd agree. Even though I don't know the author of that comment. :P 82.95.254.249 (talk) 13:41, 10 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Compare also phobia, more closely related to this page in scope: I'd argue that there, too, the picture (a cartoon representation of scaring someone with a spider) is not at all a great illustration of the subject, nor a very accurate depiction, but as a cartoon depicting a very commonly known fear it's also far less distracting. All subjective, of course, but I don't think you need to hold a poll to know which way opinion would generally go. 82.95.254.249 (talk) 13:51, 10 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]

I wouldn't for one moment argue that the image is an accurate representation of how someone experiencing the anxiety might actually look. However, I can say, as someone who experiences phone phobia, that it very accurately reflects the stress and anxiety that I feel when obliged to take or make a phone call. I imagine that the uploader of the image, Nervous ned, had similar experiences, as he gave the image the filename "Phone calls can cause anxiety in select individuals", and the description "This is an example of the angst caused by the use of a telephone." My only real issue with the image is the subject's wacky hairstyle, which I do find a bit distracting: if I could find a similar picture featuring a more conventional individual, I'd happily switch.

So, insofar as we're conducting a poll, we currently seem to be 2 against 2: me and Nervous ned against the 2 IPs. Further input welcome.

I've had another look on Commons, and found three more possibilities. The first two (Vera Carmi in La fortuna viene dal cielo, and Joan Crawford in What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?), strongly suggest anxiety (albeit not, in context, specifically about the phone); the third (anonymous woman in phone booth) includes a more subtle hint of anxiety, though again that probably wasn't the point of the photo. If there's a consensus that Nervous ned should go, I'd vote for Vera Carmi as a replacement. GrindtXX (talk) 14:25, 11 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]

For what it's worth, my personal ranking from best to worst goes "no picture" to "any picture other than Nervous Ned" (I don't know if that's actually the user in the picture, but let's call the subject Nervous Ned anyway, since it fits), with no strong preference for the picture in question. This is the kind of small thing on a lightly trafficked article where getting anything resembling "consensus" is probably a bridge too far (unless a handful of people not fighting with each other can be called a consensus). 82.95.254.249 (talk) 21:08, 12 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]

A better illustration would probably be a depiction of hesitation in pressing the answer button for a call from "Important contact". Cloudwalk9 (talk) 22:29, 4 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]