Remember when...

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MarciKS said:
Remember when the cell phone didn't exist. When people looked at you and carried on conversations with you. I remember when this life wasn't so isolated and lonely.
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Yes, but I would have never seen that bumper sticker that says, "I bet you'd drive better with that cell phone up your a--."
 

Has anyone noticed that the art of conversation seems to have been lost? Any time when I’m in a crowd of people and we are supposed to have a conversation there seems to be great difficulty finding things to talk about and a discomforting feeling, it’s downright scary.
 
MarciKS said:
Remember when the cell phone didn't exist. When people looked at you and carried on conversations with you. I remember when this life wasn't so isolated and lonely.
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I don't blame the cell phone for that. It came about through deaths of loved ones, estrangement with family, not driving anymore and disabling health. Broke too, can't afford the wonderful ways I used to entertain myself.
 
Pepper said:
I don't blame the cell phone for that. It came about through deaths of loved ones, estrangement with family, not driving anymore and disabling health. Broke too, can't afford the wonderful ways I used to entertain myself.
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What I was talking about was the days when people weren't just looking down at an electronic device. It's like the real world and the people in it no longer exist. They walk past you like you're not there, sit next to you like you're not there, when they do notice you, they rarely greet you or smile or even look your way.
 
I had an "interesting" first date 20 years ago. We were having dinner at a nice place. She answered her phone 5 times - didn't say, "Call me back later;" just chatted for several minutes each time. No emergencies; just friends.
After several weeks when I didn't call her back for a second date, she called me & said, "I thought we got along great; why haven't you called me?"
I said, "I'm not surprised you haven't figured it out....being as stupid & rude as you are."
Ya know....I never thought a woman could swear like that............. :D
 
MarciKS said:
What I was talking about was the days when people weren't just looking down at an electronic device. It's like the real world and the people in it no longer exist. They walk past you like you're not there, sit next to you like you're not there, when they do notice you, they rarely greet you or smile or even look your way.
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Oh, I know, Marci, just retelling it from my own perspective. No offense intended. I first came into contact with this cell phone dilemma upon meeting the woman who became my DIL. Never saw this particular fascination before and it was off putting. Years later, we concentrate on each other, and of course, her son (my grandson). Relationships, despite the cell and other devices, can and hopefully do, deepen beyond that.
 
Cell phone culture at least among the young has encouraged anonymous, often monosyllabic "text speak" utterances such as, "Sup?" A few decades ago, people were compelled to use land line phones which tethered you to a fixed location and usually ensured that you had a real rather than a frivolous reason for communication. If you wanted to be mobile or have privacy, you used a pay phone, now almost extinct. As communication has become more instantaneous and people expect to be constantly connected, the quality of communication has actually degraded, and many have lost the capacity for face-to-face interaction...
 
Fyrefox said:
Cell phone culture at least among the young has encouraged anonymous, often monosyllabic "text speak" utterances such as, "Sup?" A few decades ago, people were compelled to use land line phones which tethered you to a fixed location and usually ensured that you had a real rather than a frivolous reason for communication. If you wanted to be mobile or have privacy, you used a pay phone, now almost extinct. As communication has become more instantaneous and people expect to be constantly connected, the quality of communication has actually degraded, and many have lost the capacity for face-to-face interaction...
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Especially today's kids. They had a hard enough time communicating before. You can't hardly have a conversation with anyone.
 
I'm a believer in the idea that our world was a much better place before modern day cell and smart phones.

I see it all the time, entire tables of people sitting down in a restaurant for a meal, and not a peep spoken, because everyone is on the phones.

About the only time the old-fashioned wall telephone (landline) rang for me when I was younger and growing up at home, was when a neighbour would call to get me to babysit.

Nowadays people live on, and by their smart phones from the time they open their eyes first thing in the morning, until they close their eyes at night.

I miss so much related to the old days gone by.
 
I was in a hotel once when a large group of people gathered and sat in a circle in the lobby. I was talking to the clerk and she said, Oh, That's the McCoy family reunion! They came from all over the country. I looked and they were all in a circle all right, dozens of them and . . not one was talking. They were each on their private cellphone, texting! Unbelievable!
 
win231 said:
I had an "interesting" first date 20 years ago. We were having dinner at a nice place. She answered her phone 5 times - didn't say, "Call me back later;" just chatted for several minutes each time. No emergencies; just friends.
After several weeks when I didn't call her back for a second date, she called me & said, "I thought we got along great; why haven't you called me?"
I said, "I'm not surprised you haven't figured it out....being as stupid & rude as you are."
Ya know....I never thought a woman could swear like that............. :D
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Maybe you should've done what a guy did on one of those true crime shows- sent her a bill for "her share" of the date!
 
Remember when a "long distance" call was for something really, really important? Birth, death or some other earthshaking reason? At the most, it was the monthly 3-minute call to the grandparents.

An unexpected "THIS IS A LONG-DISTANCE CALL" from the operator usually meant very good or very bad. Everyone in the house came running. Hopefully it was "IT'S BOY! HE WEIGHED TEN POUNDS! Now I gotta go and call Sue's mom and Aunt Mabel!" and not "Well, the time finally come. Granddaddy's with the angels now."

Very few people in 1950 called and said, "Well, I was just thinking about you and I thought we'd have a nice long talk and catch up." Nope, that's what letters were for.
 
jujube said:
Remember when a "long distance" call was for something really, really important? Birth, death or some other earthshaking reason? At the most, it was the monthly 3-minute call to the grandparents.

An unexpected "THIS IS A LONG-DISTANCE CALL" from the operator usually meant very good or very bad. Everyone in the house came running. Hopefully it was "IT'S BOY! HE WEIGHED TEN POUNDS! Now I gotta go and call Sue's mom and Aunt Mabel!" and not "Well, the time finally come. Granddaddy's with the angels now."

Very few people in 1950 called and said, "Well, I was just thinking about you and I thought we'd have a nice long talk and catch up." Nope, that's what letters were for.
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Remember I do! Calls were few and far between in my childhood home, and something else I remember was unexpected drop-ins by relatives and family wanting to visit. They planned their drop-ins accordingly (weekends, early evenings, etc), and that's just the way things were back in the day. No one called to ask if they wanted company, you just showed up at whoever's home you wanted to visit.
 

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