Delighting in Technology

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Back when I was a girl, people rarely talked to others outside their town. You either saw each other face to face or talked on the telephone. Calling outside your area (long distance) was reserved for emergencies. When I was in college 50 miles away, I dropped my parents a note in the mail if I wanted to tell them something. Mailing letters continued when I married and lived in New York. It’s a wonder I remembered how to use the phone, since I had such little practice. There was no such thing as losing a phone. There was generally one per household, and it was wired to the wall. This is beginning to sound almost prehistoric. In the early 80s, when we lived in England for two years, we had two transatlantic phone calls. One let us know a favorite niece was going blind, and the other told us my brother’s wife died.

I would never have dreamed of something that happened today. I was walking around in the house, involved with three conversations (texts) on my phone at once. One person was across the street, another in Denmark, and the third in Qatar. That is amazing to me. With a bit of planning, we could have seen each other’s faces as we talked! I cannot imagine the inventions that will come in the future, but I hope people will delight in them.

7010 Kathie on 3rd birthday talking to E

The photo:  In 1970 I took a picture of niece Kathie on her third birthday in NC talking to her grandmother (my mom) in TN. Note the wire attached to the clunky phone.  I suppose I was impressed with our modern technology at the time!

Published by Anne Mehrling

I'm a retiree who loves to write about life in the mountains of North Carolina.

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54 thoughts on “Delighting in Technology”

  2. I read this right after being a judge for a website building hackathon day in Rochester, two hrs from me. Saw all their presentations on video then conferred with the other judge who was there in person. Great stuff–this technology!

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  3. You’re way ahead of me Anne.I struggle to keep one text conversation going on my phone and people laugh as I used a little dabber for the keys since my finger seems to press two or three at the same time. I thought I was clever having two written conversations at the same time then making it one three way conversation on Skype.
    xxx Huge Hugs xxx

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    1. You’re keeping up, David. I’ve never had a three-way conversation on Skype, but I knew it was possible. John complains about his “fat” fingers all the time. I’ve bought him a stylus, but he won’t use it. Would you ever dictate to your phone? I do that when I’m alone. It’s much faster than I can type with a keyboard. I presume your phone can do it, but perhaps not.

      xxx phone-y hugs xxx

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      2. I don’t use a special app to speak a reply. Right now in WordPress, there is an area just below where I am typing. There are words that the app thinks I might want to type. To the right of that is the microphone symbol. Press it, wait until it is ready, and speak your words. Add punctuation as you go by speaking it. Say comma in the middle of a sentence and period or question mark at the end. Practice on me if you want, or dictate and don’t click send. Your phone will be learning your way of speaking and get better as you use it.

        xxx good luck hugs xxx

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  4. Wow Anne – you make me feel like a dinosaur since I only text from the computer to someone’s phone and to just one person at a time. I still have a landline and use that phone on the table, but there is still a phone port on the wall. It is covered up with a pine, colonial-style box that looks like one of those old vintage phones. It has a door that opens and the phone is inside. We had a phone in that cabinet until about 10 years ago and it got difficult for my mom to get up from the table, use her cane to get to the phone, so we had AT&T come in to run a wire over to the table and put a port there. My mom said the young guy who came in said “you’ve got a rotary phone – wow, I’ve heard of these –
    never saw one though” … this is what we have on the wall in the kitchen…

    https://www.cabelas.com/product/Crosley-Vintage-Country-Wall-Phone/1322275.uts?productVariantId=3099449&WT.tsrc=PPC&WT.mc_id=GoogleProductAds&WT.z_mc_id1=03378961&rid=20&ds_rl=1252079&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIz8LyorjM2gIV0rrACh3uZwA1EAQYAiABEgJqf_D_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

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  5. My mom and I just had this conversation. I would not be able to do my job without technology since it spans across several states. I do remember the time when just the schools had computers and we did not have one at home. Cell phones have made life incredibly easy and fun. I love the picture from 1970! What a great post!!

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  6. I still have one of those old fashioned cell phones with the big numbers. I don’t text and have never skyped unless I was at someone else’s house. I do a lot of messaging on Facebook, though. I’m a Luddite, I guess. LOL

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  8. Our ability to connect with people all around the globe never ceases to amaze me. I remember having those corded phones… and party lines. Because my dad was a doctor we had the luxury of a private line, but you still had to be near the phone itself to talk with anyone. Now I’m anywhere talking with anyone as if it was God-given right to do so. Me likey.

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  9. Telephones where one dialed numbers, cord that got entangled, rain and lightning that brought down telephone lines- those were the times.
    We bought a cell phone in 1995 if my memory is right- it was a bulky one something like the cordless phones of today. Soon the size of the phones came down. And then there were the blackberries and now the phones are back to becoming big again. It seems to be a trend.
    When we needed to talk to a neighbor growing up, we went to their home. Now we call them or text.
    Cell phones have made us shy in a way,
    But I like them.
    Great post, Anne.
    Susie

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  11. I remember long distance phone calls when we had to shout to be heard clearly. We have definitely come a long way and I do love today’s cell phones with one downside…. I absolutely panic if I forget to take mine in the car with me. What would I do if there was car trouble? What if I needed help? There are no more phone booths! And I remember when my Mom used to tell me not to forget to take a dime for an emergency phone call. Ha! 🙂

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    1. I didn’t think about the lack of public phones. It was a problem for daughter Lise when she flew here from Denmark. She couldn’t get her phone to connect and found very few people willing to loan her a phone for a simple call to us in the car-wait lot.

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  12. We were just talking about this the other day. I saw a video on facebook where a teenager was trying to figure out how to make a call on a rotary dial phone, and it had me cracking up! Growing up in Ohio on a farm, we had nothing for miles around us, so we had a party line shared with four of our neighbors. Now, we talk to ‘the kids’ via iPhone and Skype and love seeing their faces as we talk to them. Yes, technology is a WONDERFUL thing!

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  13. Hi Anne, We still have two phones with clunky cords. We still use our landline more than our cellphones. All these years and I still have not changed the kitchen phone cord to a longer one to be able to reach the stove easily. I have the long stretch down to perfection. I should change that cord before I fall.

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              1. I’m so glad they are doing well for you Anne. I have some little seedlings growing, but the cooler than usual temperatures have kept them a bit stunted.

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      2. We never made it to NC. My nephew came down with a case of the flu. They told him in urgent care there is still a lot of it in the south.

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  14. Great post, Anne. It really is amazing how far we’ve come with telephone technology – and how we take it for granted already! I’ll tell you, video chat is the only way I’ve managed to keep my sanity having a long-distance boyfriend!

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  17. It’s amazing how far we’ve come in such a short time. While growing up, we shared a party line with our neighbors across the street. A few times, we had to go over and ask if they’d left their phone off the hook because it had been hours and we needed to make a phone call. My grandparents had a many-party line. It was fun to listen to the different rings come in. Theirs was something like: two long and a short.

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    1. You made me think of something. I knew which of my friends were on party lines, but I can’t remember ever hearing the phones ring in their houses. We didn’t get together often outside of school. I was probably oblivious to rings, anyway.

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  19. It’s a great joy that you witnessed such transition. But sometimes I often think if I was born in 18th century. How interesting will I feel the dynamism of life. How face to face conversation will be more appreciated .

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    1. I can’t imagine living in the 18th century. Sometimes I wonder what people, living 200 years from now, will think of our way of life. It boggles the mind. Thanks for reading and commenting.

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