There were some benefits, like when I would skip school and they would call home and leave a message for my dad about it and I would be able to delete the message without him ever knowing about it.
Yep. My parents always appreciated me answering the phone in the evening and telling the “telemarketers” to stop calling, so they didn’t have to get up from the couch.
One person who was expecting a call. And their sibling running to answer it first just to be a dick.
And every time a woman called me, my mother started going on about whether she’ll get a daughter in law soon.
Telemarketing did ruin it. This was the main reason people bought answering machines, to screen calls. Missing calls wasn’t a big deal for most people, it was the telemarketing that drove people to buy answering machines, and then to get caller ID, and the ability to block calls, etc. Telemarketing was a boon for the phone service providers.
If you’re anxious about answering your phone it all started with telemarketing.
It’s amazing how communication mediums seem to become so saturated by marketing that it essentially destroys them.
Phone calls, mail, fax, email.
At the very least, I’m extremely disappointed in the government for destroying phone calls (or standing back and just letting them get destroyed). The nature of a phone network lends itself well to placing responsibility on the caller. Absolutely enforceable. No will to do so.
Like, you actually need a permit to do door to door sales. That’s GOOD. Copy-paste that legislation for phones.
I’d be 100x happier with my tax dollars hunting down and punishing phone abusers than funding a speed trap.
I am so fucking mad email is ruined by telemarketing. It would be so fucking convenient if not for spam. Kinda hate that it’s how you sign up to anything now too like some weird id.
Don’t forget the entire internet, newspapers, telephone listings, radio, television, movies, video games, every surface of a store, public spaces like parks and sidewalks, and probably your dreams in the near future
Advertising is cancer and it destroys anything that tolerates it for even a moment. An industry with zero ethics or morals. If you work in advertising you’re a disgusting scumbag piece of shit and your parents are ashamed. No amount of money is worth it and the world would be objectively better without you in it.
Advertising should be illegal outside very specific instances, imo.
When a person needs a thing, they should seek it out.
That we’re constantly bombarded by marketing is not spoken of enough as the tragedy that it truly is.
It certainly made you practice your manners if you were talking to the dad of your crush.
“Hey Gramps, be a good little sheepshagger and get me Madam Fuckalicious on the horn, will ya?”
get me Madam Fuckalicious
so disappointed that this wasn’t the username of op or the person you are replying to
It’s free. You can have it.
MadamFuckalicious@blahaj.zone. It’s a gamble.
I see you also grew up in the phone call era
Greetings, fellow geezer!
True story: As a little kid, my mom taught us to answer the phone as such, “McTubbs residence, Fudgy speaking.” I still carry that etiquette to this day.
Fishmonger, I’d like to speak to your daughter
click. Buzzing tone
I would like 3 halibut please! Delivered to my doorstep
It inspired one of the great classics though
That top comment… give that man a friend.
Yeah, that hit hard.
Ahhh. Memories.
- Me at 11yr answering phone: “hello? I AM NOT <moms name>!!!
- Me at 16yr answering phone: “hello? I AM NOT <dad’s name>!!!
And:
- Also me: “MOM PHONE FOR YOOOOUUU!!”
- Mom: <normal tone cause she’s in the room near by> “did you ask who it was!?!”
- Me: <normal tone> “who’s calling please? <yelling>Mom, it’s Debbie!!!”
And lastly:
Kids will never get to experience the thrill of talking to your girlfriend about tonight while your little sister gets on the phone in the basement and makes “make out noises” loudly before giggling and hanging up.
My partner seems to exclusively communicate by yelling to me from other rooms/floors in the house.
So that yelling lives on.
Maybe get an intercom
It didn’t ring very often.
Unless you wanted to get online. Then everyone would call in the small window you were using the line.
I’m too young to have experienced dial-up, but wouldn’t it be the case that people just wanted to go online and/or call people after school or work, so around the same time?
Yep… fun times. Unless you were rich and had a dedicated internet line, there was always someone who got mad at you for jamming the line
The aggressive thing was not covering the receiver when yelling at your brother, who wasn’t even home “it’s your gf, you in?” Wait a few seconds then yell “no, the one with the big ears” and a few seconds later inform the poor girl on the phone that your brother wasn’t available.
Not covered in this image: having to learn how to be more discreet in your tweens and teens. You told your dad’s boss that dad “couldn’t come to the phone right now” and took a message, not that he was dropping a hot deuce and had run out of toilet paper.
This was the way
It wasn’t that bad
It was exciting. No idea what the phone call could bring.
Nowadays… ‘Unknown number’ just preloads frustration because you know it’s most likely a robocall.
Jokes on you, I kept the modem connected to the BBS all day playing MUDs using *70 in the AT command.
No call waiting means I can finish that dungeon uninterrupted.
A shared family phone line was basically social roulette. You never knew if you were answering for gossip, business, or pure disaster.
The best was when dad would yell “GET THE PHONE!!!” across the house. I’d pick it up and it would be for him. I’d yell down “IT’S FOR YOU!!!” He’d’ have to run across the house and answer the phone all winded and shit. Good times.
Shaniqua don’t live here no more…
