Like most here, I don't answer the phone unless it is a call from one of my Contacts. Everyone else can leave me a voicemail if they so desire. But one of the downfalls of this is that it becomes critical to always have your phone with you. If you leave home and forgot to take your phone, and then suffer an emergency like a car crash, you would have no way of calling family, etc. Even if a stranger allowed you to use their phone, your family member likely would not answer the call from the unfamiliar number and who knows when they would notice that a voicemail had been left for them.
FWIW, some here might not know that all cell phones are required to be able to call 911 even if not linked to a specific phone number. I keep an old phone, no longer associated with a number and not costing me anything, in the "glove box" of my motorcycle. Should I ever forget to have my regular phone with me, and suffer some emergency, I can use this old phone to call 911 for help. And if the phone is ever stolen or lost, no big deal since I had it returned to original factory settings when I stopped using it as my primary phone.
