I Just Called To Say I Just Called

I suppose this could be considered an extension of the stereotypical Hollywood phoniness.

I was the victim of the latest trend in Los Angeles: “antisocial networking”. In other words: people wanting to give the illusion of staying in touch - while going to great lengths to eliminate the risk of any actual interaction taking place.

.....a service called Slydial, launched a week ago and already proving to be hugely popular. To make it work, you call a freephone number......listen to an advertisement, then enter the digits of the person you don't want to reach. It puts you straight through to their voicemail while delivering a missed-call message to their phone, thus creating the illusion that you at least made the effort to have a conversation.

If you're interested, go here. They list defensible uses for it (short on time, don't want to bother someone).