In the past I had a neutral attitude towards telephones. Until one day I realized I receive quite too many and started checking - how many of them are really useful to me. How often someone calls to give me something, and how often they want something from me. It turned out almost in 100% cases the calls were from people who wanted something from me. And of course they wanted a synchronous reply I couldn't or sometimes didn't want to give. So I decided to block all calls instead of one number (from my second half - in this case it doesn't matter if she wants to give or take, I'm still fine with all her calls).
And you know what? Most friends quickly learned to respect it. They know they can always communicate to me via e-mail and I'll happily call them back or meet or whatever is needed. I use my phone mainly as a minicomputer with an additional function of communicating with the person I choose. And for these rare cases when I actually need to wait for an important phone call (this happens once a year maybe) I use an old throwaway phone with a prepaid SIM card. I only switch it on for as long as it's needed.
And you know what? Most friends quickly learned to respect it. They know they can always communicate to me via e-mail and I'll happily call them back or meet or whatever is needed. I use my phone mainly as a minicomputer with an additional function of communicating with the person I choose. And for these rare cases when I actually need to wait for an important phone call (this happens once a year maybe) I use an old throwaway phone with a prepaid SIM card. I only switch it on for as long as it's needed.