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Which won't young people believe when you tell them?
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Your best consolation is the hope that the things you failed to get weren't
really worth having.
(Score: 1) by Runaway1956 on Saturday October 28 2023, @02:31AM (8 children)
OK, it's not high tech. But 30 some years ago, I took the two older boys out in the woods, to get a load of firewood. "Daddy, did they have chain saws when you were our age?"
Alright, if I were to choose one of the options given, it would probably the the phones screwed to the wall. I mean, even land lines today are pretty portable - I can carry the hand set almost anywhere on this one acre, and it still works. I think the range is right at 175 to 200 ft, which gives a guy a lot of pacing room.
“I have become friends with many school shooters” - Tampon Tim Walz
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 28 2023, @05:03AM (6 children)
Speaking of phones, I'd go with party lines. I still have relatives living in the middle of nowhere that are on party lines today. The oldest uses one those old coiled headset cords with that distinct aged yellow color that is easily 75 feet long when stretched out. It reaches from one side of the house to the other up the stars and then back to the starting side with cord to spare. We tried years ago to switch her to a cordless, but it was too "high maintenance."
(Score: 5, Insightful) by pTamok on Saturday October 28 2023, @09:18AM (2 children)
Well of course it is.
You can't lose a handset on the end of a cord (This is important when, as you age, you more frequently forget where you put something down.), and it doesn't run out of charge in the middle of a call.
Young people, who have not yet experienced the vicissitudes of ageing, tend to say "Oh, you can just press the button on the base-station to make the phone beep so you can find it.", which is one more damn thing to remember, and doesn't work when the handset battery is flat, because who remembers to put it back on the base-station to recharge: and the batteries wear out anyway.
Designing stuff to allow people to maintain their independence is hard, and requires both experience and sensitivity. It's also worthwhile, because the longer people can remain independent, the less expensive it is for them to live, and they are happier. I wish website and app designers would get their stuff tested by people experiencing the typical cognitive difficulties that arise as you age. It's obvious they don't.
Look after your old people well, to set a good example to you children, so they will look after you.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 28 2023, @11:27PM (1 child)
That sounded more dismissive than it should have because it is an old argument. But watching that poor woman struggle with that cord on the off chance she wants to go upstairs shows the alternative isn't exactly maintenance free either. That and she has to shuffle over to the phone to pick up the phone or check the large-print caller ID box (usually missing the call in the process anyway) and then shuffle back to return it when done lest the off-hook tone start screeching (because she always sits in her favorite chair by the window in a different room to talk) is also pretty high maintenance. And that long cord stretched into the wrong spot is a horrible tripping hazard for an older woman with poor eyesight and replacement parts. And that doesn't even get into the fact that the time between her calling for help and arriving at the hospital is an hour doesn't help, and even longer if they need to fly her to a better equipped one.
Compared to a cordless phone that can go in a charger on the table next to the chair, it definitely strikes me as much higher maintenance. I think the real truth, which I sort of implied with my half-sincere quotes, is that she doesn't want to change. And that is fair too, especially when you have a system that is (or maybe just seems to be?) working for you. But like you said, that could just be my perspective since I'm used to the alternative already. There are pros and cons to both but as long as it isn't an active threat and she remembers to use whatever phone she has on my birthday, it is good enough for now I suppose. But it still feels like a sword of Damocles hanging above her head.
(Score: 1) by pTamok on Sunday October 29 2023, @11:38AM
Maybe put extension phones in: one on a table next to the chair she likes to converse in, and one upstairs, possibly next to her bed?
She might be willing to learn how to use a cordless phone, or even a mobile phone, but she might not be able to learn either easily. Unfortunately I have experience of this - in my case supporting an aged relative's use of an iPad. Things that are trivial for young people become insuperable problems for some people advanced in years. Obviously not everyone, but enough to make it a societal problem.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Bean Dip on Monday October 30 2023, @06:42PM (2 children)
For phones, there is also the insane price for long distance service in the 1970s. And of course you couldn't own your own phone, you had to rent it from Ma Bell.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 30 2023, @10:18PM (1 child)
And the pulse dialing. You dialed a number by repeatedly and quickly taking the phone off the hook multiple times a second.
(Score: 2) by hendrikboom on Monday November 06 2023, @11:20PM
And it was fun learning to do that by hitting the hang-up button repeatedly so you could still make phone calls if the rotary dial was broken.
(Score: -1, Spam) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 28 2023, @06:05AM
The nut does not fall far from the tree, chainsaws or not.