My Life - Chapter 41 - Different World

One of the last pay phones in
Madison. 2/13/2012 (dwm)

The biggest difference between life in my 50s and as a child or teen-ager is its immediacy.

If you wondered what the capital of Hungary was, you needed a knowledgeable adult or an encyclopedia, today a few key strokes on your phone will tell you the answer is Budapest.

We thought about fast differently.

Now, we order something online and expect it in 24 hours or less.  Internet search engines produce answers before we finish typing.

When I was growing up in the 1970s one of the things people dreamed of were TV-phones.  In the past 20 months nearly everyone has used one for a Zoom call.  Zooming became so common folks started turning off the camera.

More than twenty years ago, we were content watching our TV one episode at a time, usually when it aired; the idea that we could watch an entire TV season in one or two sittings wasn't possible.  Now we aren't that patient, we want to know what happened five seconds ago; if we aren't current we're out-of-date.

Just thirty years ago, the only people who could widely shared their opinions were public figures or those working in media.  Today, credentialed scientists compete with people spewing ideas they hatch while living in their parent's basement.   We wouldn't have dreamed truth was debatable back then, now people known to be wrong keep shouting the lie, confident repetition will make it true.

Instead of weighing opinions carefully, respecting those who know more than we do, we are more likely to fall for a conjured video or the loudest voice in the room or media.

Telephones are a good example of a changing method of communication that became faster.

Before Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone, quick communication was done with a series of dots and dashes transcribed at the other end of the line.  Phones weren't easy to come by early on, so most folks relied on writing letters then waited days, weeks, or months for the other person to get the message, craft a response, and send one back.

The phone compressed the time to minutes, not counting the time it took to find a phone and the expense of using one.  Phones moved from stores into homes, increasing the speed of communication. Then phones became wireless using a series of invisible communication cells - which connected everyone to everyplace.

Being connected is usually a good thing.  But when we can't be alone, we can't unplug, it is more difficult to live in the present.  

If you're in a conversation or watching TV when the phone dings, beeps, or rings... do you ignore it or answer the reflex to pick it up?

I remember sitting at dinner with mom and dad when our phone rang.  Unless a call was expected, we continued eating, listening to it ring 4, 6, 8, even 10 times before the caller hung up.  We didn't have an answering machine or caller identification, we figured if the caller wanted us, they'd call back.

Phones aren't phones anymore... they are small and powerful computers that fit in the palm of our hand.  They can be good or bad, but either way it is often the ubiquitous phone who calls the shots.

I don't want to wind the clock back 40 years, but it would be nice if people instead of phones were in charge.