Socializing on the phone?

Someone is calling me up. That's welcome. Well, most of the time it is. I know I shouldn't complain, but why does it sometime make me feel disappointed?

If the person calling is a person I haven't spoken to for months, but still he doesn't ask how I'm doing, how the kids are doing, how is the progress of ... whatever activity I'm involved in. He just asks a specific question, talks about it and then hangs up, with some excuse like "I need to hang up because just arrived to....". I find that annoying especially if there are a lot of things I would like to talk to this person about. Maybe it's a male way of using the phone, I don't know.

If the same things happen with a person I've not seen for ages and the person first spends a fairly long time talking about common things and then clears the throat and explains the reason for calling, I feel stupid. Especially if I believe I won't hear from the person until the next time there is a question I might be able to answer. Could that be women's way of calling?

I prefer that people tell me the reason why they called me as soon as possible, so I know what's up, but then it's fun if they have some time to be social too. Otherwise, maybe they didn't pick the right time to call, if they have a good excuse after two minutes. Socializing shouldn't be an inconvenient necessity, but because the person wants to!