WIthout a phone
Last Friday night I was on a road trip to visit a friend in Pittsburgh. When I got within spitting distance of my location, my phone suddenly went haywire. Someone had sent a text and the GPS switched over back to the main screen to receive the text message. I attempted to switch the phone back to the GPS only to have it crash. Fortunately I recognized enough landmarks (ex. the IKEA store on the hill) to know where I was and had his address written down on a piece of paper to get the correct location and arrived safely within a few minutes. This was the first time I had spent a weekend without a phone in a very long time, and Verizon told me they would send a new one via FedEx this coming week.
It made me think that not too long ago we were living in an age without said technology and the aids it gives us. How many of you remember the facts that:
If you had to make a phone call, you were tethered to a wall, all phones had rotary dials, and were leased from the phone company. If you could not get through, you got a busy signal and had to wait until the person you were trying to reach had hung up their phone.
Something urgent was sent via US mail, had a stamp put on it, and you had to wait until it arrived there in a few days.
Music was sold on something tangible, such as a CD. And there were just as many cassette tapes as there were CDs in most everyone's music collection.
People thought Tom Green was really cool (if for just a few minutes).
Pasta was called noodles, bread was once called starch and only thin people ate it. There were also all carb diets.
Video games were once played in arcades, and if you wanted to play them you actually had to leave your house, and feed quarters or tokens into the machine.
TV shows and movies were once on video cassettes and had tape inside them that played as the program was being watched.
You drank water from taps and there was never an option as to flavor, location or brand to choose from.
"Energy drinks" were considered coffee or caffeinated soft drinks.
Coffee was once drunk out of nothing but mugs, cost less than a dollar per serving, and was considered next to free (save for water).
You had to use your entire arm to unroll the window of a car, some cars had no seat belts, and the most high tech option was to have an AM/FM stereo.
If you had to get to a destination, you used a paper map.
Convenience stores were once one per town (now found one per block).
Cable TV was just introduced and not something you could cancel to save money.
Tanning booths were a rage. Then we figured that every human on earth would get it for free and stopped going.
All the money that was once spent on aerosol hairspray in the 1960s is now spent protecting ourselves from the hole we squirted into the ozone by spending on the highest SPF sunblock possible.
We used to marvel at the fact that we could get anything we wanted from a catalog.
We were once asked "paper or plastic" when we did our shopping for groceries. When we said we would take paper bags, we now pack our plastic sandwich bags, trash bags, household cleaner bottles, detergent bottles and soft drink bottles in a nice, biodegradable paper bag. Often times put in another plastic bag with handles to keep from breaking.
We once really, really, REALLY had to go to the mall. Either for social purposes or to buy stuff.
Salads once came with dinner, now they take up half the menu and can cost as much as a steak.
Luggage was something we once packed to go on a trip, now we need it for daily life.
Not every home had a personal computer, and you once had to sit at a desk to get whatever information you needed. But I don't know what we were doing since there was no Internet pre 1994.
So many changes. Will we go back? The phone can't get here quick enough.
It made me think that not too long ago we were living in an age without said technology and the aids it gives us. How many of you remember the facts that:
If you had to make a phone call, you were tethered to a wall, all phones had rotary dials, and were leased from the phone company. If you could not get through, you got a busy signal and had to wait until the person you were trying to reach had hung up their phone.
Something urgent was sent via US mail, had a stamp put on it, and you had to wait until it arrived there in a few days.
Music was sold on something tangible, such as a CD. And there were just as many cassette tapes as there were CDs in most everyone's music collection.
People thought Tom Green was really cool (if for just a few minutes).
Pasta was called noodles, bread was once called starch and only thin people ate it. There were also all carb diets.
Video games were once played in arcades, and if you wanted to play them you actually had to leave your house, and feed quarters or tokens into the machine.
TV shows and movies were once on video cassettes and had tape inside them that played as the program was being watched.
You drank water from taps and there was never an option as to flavor, location or brand to choose from.
"Energy drinks" were considered coffee or caffeinated soft drinks.
Coffee was once drunk out of nothing but mugs, cost less than a dollar per serving, and was considered next to free (save for water).
You had to use your entire arm to unroll the window of a car, some cars had no seat belts, and the most high tech option was to have an AM/FM stereo.
If you had to get to a destination, you used a paper map.
Convenience stores were once one per town (now found one per block).
Cable TV was just introduced and not something you could cancel to save money.
Tanning booths were a rage. Then we figured that every human on earth would get it for free and stopped going.
All the money that was once spent on aerosol hairspray in the 1960s is now spent protecting ourselves from the hole we squirted into the ozone by spending on the highest SPF sunblock possible.
We used to marvel at the fact that we could get anything we wanted from a catalog.
We were once asked "paper or plastic" when we did our shopping for groceries. When we said we would take paper bags, we now pack our plastic sandwich bags, trash bags, household cleaner bottles, detergent bottles and soft drink bottles in a nice, biodegradable paper bag. Often times put in another plastic bag with handles to keep from breaking.
We once really, really, REALLY had to go to the mall. Either for social purposes or to buy stuff.
Salads once came with dinner, now they take up half the menu and can cost as much as a steak.
Luggage was something we once packed to go on a trip, now we need it for daily life.
Not every home had a personal computer, and you once had to sit at a desk to get whatever information you needed. But I don't know what we were doing since there was no Internet pre 1994.
So many changes. Will we go back? The phone can't get here quick enough.
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