Anyone who knows me knows that I've been slow to join the "smart Phone" trend. I joke that "smart phone" and "Marysue", uttered in the same sentence, really IS an oxymoron. They just don't go together. Now, don't go thinking I'm a Neanderthal. I have a simple cell phone that serves its purpose, should I need a phone when away from the "real" phone at home.
This got me to thinking how far we've come in the phone business. What now is a palm-sized accessory that goes everywhere with us, got its humble beginnings as a rather substantial item that was found in our homes. The phone in my childhood home was black, with a numbered dial, that hung on the wall in our dinette. That way, Mom could keep an eye on things in the kitchen or have a seat while conversing. Twinbrook-22642. (Not sure why I remember our number!). It was a big deal to have a phone in a bedroom and that didn't happen in our house for years...a real luxury.
For luxury, we needn't go any further than my grandmother's house. She had the first "princess phone"I ever saw (in pink, no less.) The princess phone was sleek, pretty and had push button numbers, instead of that dial that we had at home. (How's THAT for an improvement!) And it was in her bedroom! I thought that was really something, when I was in grade school. A bedside phone! And needless to say, that wasn't going to happen in OUR house anytime soon.
I'm old enough to remember "party lines"... Remember those? When we shared a phone line with someone else in town and you couldn't make a call until they were off the phone? Now, THAT was Neanderthal! And if you had a party line partner that was a blabber head, you were screwed! Luckily, the party line was short-lived in our neighborhood.
The next step to phone mobility was the cordless phone. What? You could be on the phone and actually walk away from it? No black curly cord to contend with? That was living! Next up came car phones...those dandy appliances that were wired into your car, so you could chat away when en route to somewhere. Then answering machines came along, allowing us to be away from the phone and not miss a thing.
And don't even get me started on texting! With the earliest concept of a typewriter showing up in the 1700's (a precursor to texting) and telephones following in the 1800's, it seems to me we're going backwards! What's next? Smoke signals?
Fast forward to now. Everyone has a cell phone or a smart phone. They really have changed the way we live... But have they improved communication? Having all calls (and texts), right there, at all hours of the day and night? To me, that's as bad as sharing a party line with a blabber head...okay...I AM a Neanderthal!
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