Musings on Then and Now: Why I Am Obsolete

Merriam and Webster.com Dictionary defines the word obsolete as “no longer useful.” Synonyms include outdated, passe’, fossilized, mossy, rusty, and outworn. Wow—what a word picture that conjures up in my mind! Actually, a recent photo of myself that I accidentally took when my phone camera was in the wrong position, revealed a very outdated, mossy, rusty, rather outworn-looking old lady. Fortunately, with today’s technology, I was able to quickly delete it, although’ some-where in the netherlands, it probably still exists. Thus began my musings on how I arrived to this state.

I have completed over eight and a half decades of life, and experienced countless changes in technology throughout those years. The differences between the “Then” and “Now” are quite staggering, permeating almost every aspect of daily life. Join me as I

share a few recollections of how things have changed and how I had to constantly adapt.

I’ve always loved talking on the phone but it was hard to do as a kid. One phone served our family of five, and it was also a “party-line” shared with two other people in town. One picked up the receiver and with luck you would hear an operator say “number please”. Once given the number, she would connect you. Conversations were brief, and when one ended the conversation you said “I’m hanging up now” and replaced the receiver into the cradle, thus breaking the connection. Private lines with a rotary dialed system did not take

place in my home until the late 1940s and everyone had to learn how to use the new phone book with its white and yellow pages, become familiar with the look of the new phone, and learn how to dial up the number yourself. I loved it as it meant more freedom to chat more

frequently with friends. This new technology however, was a struggle and inconvenience for my paternal grandmother to learn. As a personal aside, isn’t it funny how old habits are hard to break as even to this day, I’ve been known to say to someone on the phone, “well,

it’s time to hang up.” Difference now is that I only have to press an icon on my phone screen to end the connection. (I really don’t want to admit how long it took me to be comfortable using my current cell phone but I did prevail and suffice to say I would be lost without it today.)

Anyone remember using carbon paper to produce a copy of a written or typed page? It smelled, could smear, and left stains on ones fingers. Ever run the mimeograph machine at school? Today, we can produce a PDF form, attach it to an email and send it to multiple

addresses by using “cc” on the email form. Need a hand held copy of a document today? Pop the original into your own copy machine at home. But every single process was new at one time or another and I had to continue learning. I realize now that the more familiar I was

with a process, the more I tended to resist the new—especially since I did not even understand the vocabulary.

Radio was my first form of home entertainment but in 1949, I came home from school one day to see a large antennae sitting on the roof and a large, wooden cabinet containing a small 8 or 10 inch screen tv screen sitting in the parlor. There was a “rabbit ear” antenna and new low-watt bulbed lamp sitting on top. How exciting! Three network stations, and sometimes an independent station, could be tuned in and it was like magic! Programming ended by midnight, with the playing of the National Anthem and a “test pattern” would occupy the screen. (According to Google search and Wikipedia articles that I used in this article, only 9% of American households owned a tv in 1950, but by 1959, that number had soared to 85.9%.) Broadcasts were live and shows were mainly sponsored by one company. Some of the most popular programs were the Texaco Star Theater with Milton Berle, The Philco TV Playhouse, The Colgate Comedy Hour, Fireside Theater which was sponsored by Proctor Gamble, Kraft Television Theater, Lux Theater, and a weekly 90 minute comedy called Your Show of Shows sponsored by the Admiral Corporation as

a way to boost their tv sales. That show was so popular that Admiral went from selling 500 tvs per week to 10,000 sets per week and after only 19 weeks of sponsorship, they dropped the show as they could not keep up with the manufacturing demand! Great young actors embraced the small screen and quality shows from A to Z were produced under strict guidelines. American families were introduced to live productions of great dramas, musical offerings, variety shows, documentaries, educational shows for children, and newsmen who reported without editorials. The best part to me was that an ad in the 50’s and into the 60’s, would be about a minute in length and sometimes would relate a mini story within itself. An ad would appear before the show began, occasionally in the middle and again at the end of the story. However, it didn’t take long for advertisers to capitalize on how much money could be made. Today, over a ten hour period of watching tv, American viewers see three hours of ads, twice the amount seen in the 60’s with a stream of ads, many lasting only 15 seconds in length! And we wonder why attention spans are diminished? I’ve gone from regular tv, to cable tv, to vhs videos, to recording directly from my tv, and am now currently fixated with streaming. There are endless movies, documentaries, tv reruns, serials, etc., offered by multiple streaming services. According to

Forbes Home in August of 2024, Americans were spending three hours and 9 minutes each day streaming. That’s greater than 21 hours a week. Hmm—once again we wonder why people no longer know their neighbors, engage in family activities, enjoy being with others, and have poor social skills? Learning how to zero in on a specific offering may be a breeze for the under 30 crowd, but let me tell you it wasn’t a picnic to learn and sometimes I just move on to another streaming service. Now here’s the rub—the streaming services are not only raising their subscription fees, but they are hopping onto the ad bandwagon. Want to watch programming sans ads? Can do, but for a sizable hunk of extra $ per month. Yikes!

The next technology that may go mainstream, is Virtual Reality—an interactive experience whereby a computerized environment seems real and the user is immersed into the surroundings using a headset. It’s already popular with gamers and some entertainment venues, but you won’t find me there.

My brain is already getting “rusty, mossy, fossilized, and outworn” having had to adapt to so many changes. At the rate I’m going, you may find me ordering the old View Master toy on E Bay for my later￾in-life entertainment!

Have a Nice Day!