Haha yeah its SO FUNNY that kids don’t know how to use something they’ve NEVER USED!!
Comment on Must be a strange feeling that something you used to use is now only seen in museums
foodandart@lemmy.zip 7 hours ago
The real fun bit is watching 12 year olds try to dial out on one.
I kept my desktop rotary until 2017 when I got a cell phone with the landline number ported to it.
NGL, the desktop rotary was a Godsend in the winter of 1996 when the Northeast got hit by a massive ice storm that took out power for weeks across parts of the region. Phone lines are more robust - also the power lines intercept the falling trees or catch the ice so while power would often be out, the phones would be just fine.
What folks didn’t get about the rotary phones is that part of the spring-loaded mechanism under the dial is a magneto that puts voltage into the line as you dial.
Think of the old 1930’s movies where the phones had cranks on them - you would actually charge the circuit to make the call. When dial tone phones came on the market big time in the early 80’s the phone company increased the monthly fee by $3.50 to dial-tone phone users in order to make up for them having to provide power to the phone.
I had a fun time getting that charge removed from my bill… would be talking to the operator and dialing the phone as I did so they could hear the rotary click stops… Ahem… Fix that bill, thankyouverymuch…
LodeMike@lemmy.today 7 hours ago
foodandart@lemmy.zip 7 hours ago
You’d think that maybe - just maybe - they’d see a movie or show that had older phones on set and see them in use? What era was that show Stranger Things set in?
Lotsa rotary phones in use at that time… but then again, who actually watches a show when everyone’s got their noses glued to their devices. LOL!
LodeMike@lemmy.today 7 hours ago
Yeah because the shows come with a tutorial /s.
It’s easy to learn too. To input a number, put your finger in the hole and rotate it clockwise until you hit the stopper, then repeat.
DrBanjo@reddthat.com 1 hour ago
Yes its not brain science. I never had a rotary, then bought one, and immediately you can understand how to dial a number.
bitjunkie@lemmy.world 3 hours ago
jqubed@lemmy.world 2 hours ago
I saw a mediocre movie about Walt Disney once (not authorized by the Disney company or I think even the family). It was fairly low budget and one of their selling points was having the star of Napoleon Dynamite in a minor role. Anyway, at one point in the movie a character answers a call on one of those really old crank phones where the user lifts the earpiece but the microphone stays on the wall. The caller is asking for someone else, so the character puts her hand over the phone to shout for the intended recipient in the busy building, except the actress put her hand over the earpiece in her hand instead of the microphone on the wall. I’m sure she’d never used that type of phone before, but I chalked it up to the inexperience of the production team that no one caught that goof.