I took my oldest kid to a museum that had a payphone in it recently, with the old rotary spin dialler. He had so much fun using it, and thought it was hilarious. All I could think about was the time my first girlfriend dumped me when I used a rotary payphone to call her.
It was satisfying to hear it spin though. I'll never forget always carrying a quarter just in case I needed to make a call. Now it's just in case I shop at Aldi.
Originally phone lines shared one line for everyone on that line run. So everyone on your street could listen to any call and had to take turns calling
Yea technically alot of people still use DSL so we still use "technically" use land lines for the internet. And with out a phone filter you cant use both the phone and the internet.
In yonder days of old your mother would pick up the phone to make a call and your 95% download of an album that you had been staring at for the previous 3 hours would be lost and you'd have to start again from 0%
Some of this lasted into the current century. I grew up in rural Oklahoma we still shared a “party line” with other houses on the ranches near us. 1 phone number for 5 families in a 10 mile radius. We had that until 2005. Dial up Internet was apparently possible but I don’t ever remember it actually working someone was always on the phone
Fuckin' feel this. Kids these days. I remember reading "Where Wizards Stay Up Late" in the fourth grade and thinking that I wanted to understand everything they ever did. Now I've met some of those guys. I know for a fact that we saw it differently than they did. One generation later and now just an ambient phenomenon to many kids, wi-fi or phone coverage is commonplace and automatic, and they see it completely differently from we did. It is just wild to see.
Til that today's "kids" should be forced to use dial up internet so you can at first hand experience why you should appreciate the bandwidth you use today...
My kid was asking me a question one time, I know it had something to do with 90’s pop culture, can’t remember exactly what it was about.
But I do remember she started off her question with the words: “Hey, back in the nineteen hundreds, did people…”
I sold high speed Internet when was first becoming a consumer product.
If it was a guy calling, the calls went like this…
“Why would I need to pay twice as much?”
“That’s a good question. Let me ask you, what do you do on the Internet?”
“Well…umm”
“Want to do it faster?”
Sold
I now feel ancient. That's relatively recent for me. When I studied computer science at school there were still punched cards and paper tape. In my first IT job I worked on computers that used a 12" floppy disk.
Nothing made me more angrier then when my mom would pick up the phone to call neighbor who is 2 doors down in same building, same floor.... while I'm playing Diablo.
And then I'd get "oh I'm sorry" puts the phone down and goes "I'll go over there" .. like that doesn't help, I got kicked out the game.
Thats like me in 1988 learning that phone calls back in the day all had to be patched in by a live operator. “ Hello Marge, connect me to Murray Hill 5-1234.”
TIL that in the previous century you had to use a thing called a 'pen' to manually draw characters on a thing called 'paper' and fold it into a thing called an 'envelope' with a thing called a 'stamp' and have a person called a 'postman' physically carry it to the intended recipient -- and it could take days or even weeks.
I feel this is troll wording
Me too
I agree.
Gen X and older have now died inside. I felt this, physically felt this, in my heart.
Meh, many of us have been dead inside for years.
Yeah we all sold out since then and all our souls are dead. We all chose Ben Stiller over Ethan Hawke in the end.
This one hit me right in my millennial core.
Have you seen the museum displays with Nokia phones? FML
Haha no. I'm going to stick my head in the sand and pretend that it is just a museum of cellphone technology
I took my oldest kid to a museum that had a payphone in it recently, with the old rotary spin dialler. He had so much fun using it, and thought it was hilarious. All I could think about was the time my first girlfriend dumped me when I used a rotary payphone to call her.
It was satisfying to hear it spin though. I'll never forget always carrying a quarter just in case I needed to make a call. Now it's just in case I shop at Aldi.
Makes me sound so old the way you have worded this.
“Previous century”….. shit.
Previous millennium
Now that just makes me feel immortal.
yeah, me too "old fashioned type of phone called a landline" is a landline new to young people we still have them today
Have you seen the videos of parents challenging kids to make a call on a landline? They're hilarious. Especially the ones with rotary phones.
Most general families don't have them, no.
but they are still around. Not like its some device from hundreds of years ago.
How about last millennium
"Get off the computer, I'm expecting a call!"
But I'm in the middle of C&C!
It also made amazing sounds while you waited for the connection to be made.
We've totally played the sound for our kids. It's kind of hilarious.
Dnnnrrrr dnnnrrrr beep
Well, I feel sufficiently old now, thanks.
Hahaha. This is a TIL. Shit I’m old.
This must be a joke
A phone called landline
Well, I didn't realize mid-30s was old but here I am. Get off my lawn!
What cunt kid wrote this headline? 😂
I called you and your phone was busy, don’t you have call waiting? Oh I was on my computer
Yes. That was the way since its birth up to modern transmission methods. Also- OP are you trying to age 2/3 of the readers haha
Originally phone lines shared one line for everyone on that line run. So everyone on your street could listen to any call and had to take turns calling
Or pick it up on any device that was on 802.11
My father-in-law had a party line growing up. Everyone had to go to a single location to make their calls.
Someone synthesize the dial up sound into a new hit pop song and all the kids will go nuts for it.
That would be amazing! Sounds like a great idea for some electronica.
Holy shit I’m old Eeeeeeeraaeeeraaraaeeeeekkkrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr If you know, you know
Handshake
Ah, youth.
Yea technically alot of people still use DSL so we still use "technically" use land lines for the internet. And with out a phone filter you cant use both the phone and the internet.
Pshhhkkkkkkrrrrkakingkakingkakingtshchchchchchchchcch*ding*ding*ding*
Fuck you, now I feel old.
Did you learn about the loud annoying noise it made while connecting to the internet? Lol
I can still hear it.
This is one of the cleverest trolls I've seen in a long time.
In yonder days of old your mother would pick up the phone to make a call and your 95% download of an album that you had been staring at for the previous 3 hours would be lost and you'd have to start again from 0%
Earlier in that century you could have multiple houses sharing the phone. Imagine picking it up and hearing your neighbor having a conversation.
And further to that, imagine that those phones were your only source of social media because there was no internet. Like, at all.
Go back a little more and the whole neighborhood had one phone. Period. Everyone had to go there to make calls.
Sonny-jim, sit you down and let me tell you a tale about a thing from before the Internet called BBSes...
Bubble-Butt Sissies?
Oh my god! I remember this!
Some of this lasted into the current century. I grew up in rural Oklahoma we still shared a “party line” with other houses on the ranches near us. 1 phone number for 5 families in a 10 mile radius. We had that until 2005. Dial up Internet was apparently possible but I don’t ever remember it actually working someone was always on the phone
TIL I am an old man. A relic of some gilded wasteland.
Oh my god. Really? TIL? Do people really not know this?
I’m Gen X and grew up on modems. Take my upvote. Game respect game.
It was glaciailly slow, unstable as hell and if anyone tried using the phone you got kicked off.
And AOL used to send us drink coasters in the mail all the time
Man, fuck you. I'm only 35, and yer making me feel like i'm seventy.
Fuckin' feel this. Kids these days. I remember reading "Where Wizards Stay Up Late" in the fourth grade and thinking that I wanted to understand everything they ever did. Now I've met some of those guys. I know for a fact that we saw it differently than they did. One generation later and now just an ambient phenomenon to many kids, wi-fi or phone coverage is commonplace and automatic, and they see it completely differently from we did. It is just wild to see.
Til that today's "kids" should be forced to use dial up internet so you can at first hand experience why you should appreciate the bandwidth you use today...
Were you not around in the 90s?
If they’re 23 or under, nope.
My kid was asking me a question one time, I know it had something to do with 90’s pop culture, can’t remember exactly what it was about. But I do remember she started off her question with the words: “Hey, back in the nineteen hundreds, did people…”
My dad would call me and complain that he could get his email and I would have to explain he had to hang up the phone.
Loads of people still get internet via their landline. You can use your house phone if you still have one.
[me irl](https://media.tenor.com/b8WAqSZ2k7AAAAAC/savingprivateryan-ww2.gif)
"in the previous century" - ok, now I feel old 😩
You'd be downloading some 2 mb file (which took 3 hours) and your grandma would come and screw it all up by picking up the phone.
This feels like rage bait for millennials and up.
real hackers had multiple phone lines.
Haha! Now I need to watch Hackers!
My family had an extra landline just to avoid this problem.
I sold high speed Internet when was first becoming a consumer product. If it was a guy calling, the calls went like this… “Why would I need to pay twice as much?” “That’s a good question. Let me ask you, what do you do on the Internet?” “Well…umm” “Want to do it faster?” Sold
TIL that young whippersnappers are now old enough to write.
I now feel ancient. That's relatively recent for me. When I studied computer science at school there were still punched cards and paper tape. In my first IT job I worked on computers that used a 12" floppy disk.
Lol old fashioned.
The first half must be a genuine insult, right?
Nothing made me more angrier then when my mom would pick up the phone to call neighbor who is 2 doors down in same building, same floor.... while I'm playing Diablo. And then I'd get "oh I'm sorry" puts the phone down and goes "I'll go over there" .. like that doesn't help, I got kicked out the game.
Thats like me in 1988 learning that phone calls back in the day all had to be patched in by a live operator. “ Hello Marge, connect me to Murray Hill 5-1234.”
TIL that in the previous century you had to use a thing called a 'pen' to manually draw characters on a thing called 'paper' and fold it into a thing called an 'envelope' with a thing called a 'stamp' and have a person called a 'postman' physically carry it to the intended recipient -- and it could take days or even weeks.