Hate the Phone?

I'm really happy to learn from a Kevin Drum blog post this morning that I am not the only person who really dislikes the telephone. Not only do I dislike making phone calls but I don't particularly care to receive phone calls either, except from close relatives. I think it's because I'm terrible at engaging in "small talk". Any exchange of information is fine, but please don't ask me to talk about nothing. I also don't like talking about what I've been up to lately, primarily because it's typical that I've been up to nothing.