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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I dialed (already an outdated verb in this instance) a telephone number through the Blue Tooth mechanism.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
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