Most of you can probably relate to this situation: Are you up for a fun night socializing with friends? Maybe you’re striking up a conversation while the waiter waits for your order. Or dance with any song or set. Next thing you know, this person is attached to your side, following you around, asking personal questions, and testing your hands, or worse, all over you. The only thing worse than getting this person is going up the hook when they ask for a phone number. While some will politely walk away without a scene when a request is denied, there always seems to be at least one person who is convinced that your life is not complete without him or in it. Their stubbornness first becomes annoying, then uncomfortable, and perhaps even threatening. Sound familiar? Well, this number was made just for that special person!
It is called a Rejection Line because that is what it offers when it is said. The voice on the other end informs the caller: “The poor guy who gave you this number doesn’t want to talk to you or see you again… We want to take this opportunity to officially reject you. Our certified rejection specialists are waiting to serve you at the right time. .. “The memory continues to offer options to callers, so that someone urges them to speak for special comfort; pressing the two to hear “the sad song of a relative”; urge three for the speaker, who wants to “hold on to the unequivocal hope that a relationship can still be made”; Finally, press four to set up your voice mail account. The fourth option is the only one that actually works right now, as it is an actual board for the official sponsor RejectionLine.com, which provides an email address to confirm real voicemail accounts.
RejectionLine.com was started sometime in 2001 by the brother and sister team, Iona and Chelsea Peretti, in response to many of their female friends, who complained about how aggressive some of them were—they became daters with respect to receiving phone numbers. The lines describe the initiation of the divorce as a “urban experiment”. “We started as a kind of experiment in viral media, to try to create something and see how it spreads. But it’s also a parody of the scene,” Mr. Peretti said. “It’s the idea that we need that which is ridiculous – that reporting is so widespread that people need an automated system to help them reject people.” (http://www.contagiousmedia.org)
It is true that this number, like many things, begins with harmless jokes, abused, as in the case of a guy who used to break up with his girlfriend after six months (People Magazine). A person who smiles and pretends to be interested in getting a few free drinks and then gives a rejection with simple number lines. and an innocent request, to him who has just been deceived, is a perfectly just means. Peretti never meant to use the number in such a way. When in 2002 it was again suggested that it be expanded to a national or international service, the answer was Jonas Peretti “… we don’t really have an interest in having a bunch of rejection lines in any city in harassing someone for a phone number” (CNN Talkback Action).
But the line of rejection can be a savior in that it blocks the scene, leads across, yet does so discreetly. A person who has had enough of being harassed by someone trying to get their number can get their person back without being rude or defensive. I’ll be ready to get the message yet, but at least he can save the face from his friends, and only suffer rejection, instead of in front of the audience, that is. even in an incompetent situation.
The original Rejection Line number is New York. It has grown in popularity in the last eight years, just enough to be published and entertaining, but still not enough to recognize the number when it was handed down to them. CNN, People Magazine, USA Today, The New York Post, and many other publications, newspapers, radio and television, as well as in United States and abroad. Despite Peretti’s desire not to have any kind of national or international “Rejection Line networking”, there are now many in many states, as well as in Great Britain, Ireland, and Australia. Many of the letters are the same, with a few variations. The Australian version has a text messaging feature available for callers to leave their responses, which are then posted on Twitter, without displaying the sender’s phone number (http://twitter.com/rejectionline). There is also a website, www.rejectionline.com. But, just like the hotline, it doesn’t seem to work. Jonas and Chelsea Peretti are not making any money off the Line. Aside from the long distance cost of a landline phone, there is no cost to call someone on the Line rejection numbers. See the rejection line as a kind of public service.
References
Burkeman, Oliver. “A new technique was noted in the game.” Contagious Media Project. May 4, 2002.
LIVE.” Interview with Jon Stewart.
“Dead Ringers.” People Magazine 27 May 2002: 130.
“Rejection line (rejection) arc.” Twitter: What are you doing? 2009.
Welcome to RejectionLine.com. 2001-2002.
