Skip to main content

Busy Busy

As my kids and I were driving somewhere, my cell phone was connected to the Blue Tooth device in the car.  The "hands free" technology allowed me to make a call, albeit on a speakerphone, that was audible throughout the car.

I dialed (already an outdated verb in this instance) a telephone number through the Blue Tooth mechanism.  After placing the call, I reached a busy signal.  Funny, I thought to myself, I hardly reach a "busy" anymore.  When the droning busy signal was amplified throughout the car, my daughter in the back seat yelled, "What is that noise!?"

"What do you mean, what noise?" I responded, thinking that something might have been wrong with the car.

"That noise on your phone, what is that?"

What!?

Yes, that's right, my 11 year-old had never heard a busy signal in her life and had no idea what it could possibly be.  Wow.  I explained to her how things worked before "call-waiting" was invented.  It seemed preposterous to her, it simply didn't make sense.

The sound of a busy signal is dated, bringing you back to another time and place altogether.  We accepted that sound and the limitations of the telephone because that's all there was.

What technology will cease to exist when this generation reaches adulthood?  And what will take its place?

Comments

Anonymous said…
Scary thought. Crazy thin/light weird looking computers. Mobile phones that type what we think or speak. No
more light switches.
August 26, 2011 at 5:06 AM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Always Learning

One of the goals of my local library is to foster a lifelong love of learning.  While it's a lovely alliteration, it's also a worthy aspiration.  It's a concept that we should teach our children to embrace. Yesterday, while my 10 year-old daughter and I were together in the car, I taught her something new or advised her about something she didn't know about already.  Okay, so that sort of thing happens often, by virtue of her age and mine (!), and me being the parent and all.  At that moment I told her how much I love teaching her new things.  And she said, "Well, you're the mom, you should be teaching me things." And she was right.  But I quickly added, "You know, I've also learned so much from you -- you've taught me more than you'll ever know." She seemed to be very surprised by that sentiment.  But then she sort of nodded, giving it some more thought. You just never know what another person takes away from a conversation. ...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Honeysuckle

One of my sisters said I should “blog” more often.  I take that as a compliment, even if she is related to me.  So I decided to write about the Honeysuckle. Yes.  The Honeysuckle.  They are in bloom right now and if you pay close enough attention, soon enough, your nose will lead you to one.  When I was a kid, the summers were full of quiet time.  We didn’t go away to camp and barely went to day camp.   We played outside with whoever was home too.  We visited the town pool, with its icy, unheated water and biked home afterward. Right around this time, when the line between spring and summer starts to blur, I remember feeling like such a lucky girl.  My best friend, and across-the-street neighbor, had tons of Honeysuckle bushes lined up along her tall, wooden fence.  We spent hours picking the flowers and tasting the nectar found within the yellow and white stems.  It was dreamy. Just the other day I was playing golf with my mo...
2 comments
Read more

Kitchen Connection

Before the Internet, or at least the Internet as we know it, I used to call my mom to ask her questions as I started to learn to cook. To prepare meals on my own, as a newly married woman, as someone exploring the kitchen, deeper into it than boiling water and making pasta. I needed to know what cut of meat to buy to make a respectable roast beef. Or, how long to cook it. Do I season or brown it before roasting? Recipes were not at the ready. They were not a click away. But my mother was a phone call away. And always happy to hear from one of her young adult daughters, who lived on her own. She always had the answer. For how long should I parboil the potatoes? “Stick a fork in them and see how soft they are. Can you mash them?” Most of her suggestions or advice were obvious. Then I began to wonder if I needed her guidance, or perhaps I just wanted to know that I still needed her, and that she would always be there with the answer. So now I have two of my own “young adults” in college. ...
3 comments
Read more