Missed Calls

It's surprising how little research has been done on missed calls, given that they're so pervasive, mainly among the younger ages (adolescents). Interestingly, there is a paper by Jonathan Donner on "the rules of beeping" in sub-Saharan Africa. Apparently the phenomenon there is very widespread among all demographic (including age) groups (google it on scholar and click google's cache).

For some reason most of us, including the most avid users of missed calls, take this tool for granted and do not think twice about how or why it is being used. A common misconception is that missed calls are all about pre-arranged signals, typically "call me back". Indeed, a significant proportion of missed calls are prearranged, and many of those pre-arranged are callback calls. Donner employs a taxonomy of 3 categories to classify mixed calls: callback, prenegotiated instrumental (of the kind "call me when you arrive"), and relational. The relational category includes everything else. It is not evident in Donner's paper, but in my experience and research, those so called relational missed calls represent the vast majority.

I'm prepared to argue that these missed calls have an indeterminate meaning, they are highly idiosyncratic to the individuals involved and to their particular time and place context, and they may carry potentially very rich meaning. Come to think about it, once two users have mastered the art of making sense of missed calls, even instrumental missed calls need not be pre-negotiated: you don't have to agree in advance that "I'll call you when I get there to pick you up" because you'll be able to figure that out when the missed call from the given person rings at the given moment.

From this point of view, in Donner's taxonomy, callback is a subcategory of pre-negotiated instrumental, and this, in turn, is a subcategory of relational.

Another misconception is that missed calls are used only to minimize cost. Granted, missed calls are initially motivated by the fact that they're not charged. Once you're into it however, there are many more 'social' or 'relational' reasons why missed calls are the medium of choice in in contrast to a text message or a voice call. Generally speaking, the missed call may convey all those unspoken thoughts and feelings that you can't or don't want to put in words. Or, often, you may not have something specific to say, but you may still want to touch base with some other.