Teenagers Trying to Use Rotary Phone

Now this really makes me feel old...

Makes me feel even older. I used to install those telephones. Working with 4 party lines was not a treat.

Boy do I feel old. I grew up with party lines and telephones that an operator would come on and say, "Number please." I used to quietly listen to old ladies talking on the party line, until they somehow figured out someone else was on the line. I was probably 10 or 11 when everyone was excited that they first dial telephone was coming to our town. The above reminds me of a recent trip to Best Buy. I don't watch TV other than the morning national news on a small TV in the bathroom as I'm showering and shaving. The rabbit ears broke after several years of use and when I asked the sales people at Best Buy where I could find rabbit ears, they didn't have a clue what I was talking about.

The teens wouldn't have to learn to "dial" if they lived in West Concord, MN. They had a town operator there, and after she died they went directly to push-button phones -- bypassing dial phones altogether. Aah, the march of technology!!

My wife texted that video to our sons. Hilarious.  Yes, I was around for party lines too and 6 digit calls.

Sometimes things just grab me. I am struck by an old wooden suit hanger emblazoned with the words CITY DYE WORKS 3000 CENTRAL AVENUE LOS ANGELES HUMBOLDT 0106. This address is in present-day South Central, and shall we say a difficult neighborhood. And I wonder how long it has been since Los Angeles (population about 4 million, with multiple area codes) had 6 digit phone numbers with no area code. If that hanger could talk - - - - -

I don't know if it makes me feel old or if it makes me lose confidence in a generation that can't figure out how to use such an utterly simple contraption.  And don't say that it's easy for me to say having used one for much of my life.  Look at the thing.  You pick up the little earpiece/speaker thing-a-ma-bob and hold it to your face, then you put your finger in the holes and spin the dial for each number until you've done all of the numbers you have in front of you.  Maybe I'm old for being so utterly impatience and showing a total lack of understanding for someone who can't use a device that they've never seen before.

Sad yet amusing. For an encore I’d like to see them try to use a reel to reel tape deck and then a movie projector with separate screen. That’d be a hoot!

As another in a series of old men, I had a laugh at their expense while the 17 year olds struggle with a rotary phone. Then I realized that they can do things with electronics that if I was asked to perform them with no prep well I am sure that would give them a good laugh as well. They would shake their heads and say pitiful. Just like I did.

(05-17-2019, 05:25 PM)RyznRio Wrote: As another in a series of old men, I had a laugh at their expense while the 17 year olds struggle with a rotary phone. Then I realized that they can do things with electronics that if I was asked to perform them with no prep well I am sure that would give them a good laugh as well. They would shake their heads and say pitiful. Just like I did.

^ This ^

Don't confuse an unfamiliarity with a user-interface with stupidity or being dumb; how many of us would be able to confidently start and drive a Model T for example? I'm willing to bet dollars to doughnuts that most of us would require to be shown from someone who knows, or at least would have to spend some time reading the manual.

Things change, and knowledge what was once familiar to many is lost to the great masses. It's always been this way, even if the process seems to accelerate these days.