The Inside Veer - When a campaign robocall is a relief

My phone vibrates constantly.

Because I receive so many notifications, I keep the call volume muted. Instead of ringing, it vibrates.

Most of the alerts come from apps I’ve set up, but when it comes to phone calls and text messages, many of the ones I’ve received over the past few weeks have been little more than digital garbage.

Scammers want to help me clear nonexistent back taxes, and predatory lenders want to offer debt-consolidation loans I never applied for.

But amid that sea of spam, something strange has happened. I’ve started appreciating campaign ads.

I used to ignore every call from an unknown number, but given the sheer volume of spam calls, a political robocall or campaign text now feels almost refreshing.

I haven’t listened to many campaign calls all the way through, except for a few from people I’ve actually met. In those cases, I wanted to make sure they weren’t calling to discuss a story I’d covered or some other issue directly.

A couple of days ago, I answered one of those calls from someone I’ve not only interviewed but have also spoken with socially a few times. When the voice started talking, it took me a moment to realize it was a recording.

Oddly enough, and not just because I still haven’t decided who I’m voting for in a couple of races, I’ve started listening to every campaign message or at least reading the beginning of every text before deleting it.

Pretty much everyone I know dislikes political ads, except the ones supporting candidates they favor or attacking candidates they oppose. But whether you like them or not, political ads represent actual civic life.

They may be irritating, obnoxious and sometimes even blatantly false, but a candidate asking for your vote is democracy in action. A bot trying to steal your identity is something else entirely.

As I typed that last sentence, I realized that may be the next evolution of the problem: a bot pretending to be a candidate while trying to steal your identity.

Until then, though, I’ll take a politician over a scammer any day.