The other day I was driving around here in Los Angeles. It was another sunny, 73 degree summer day. As I was driving I started thinking to myself about the things I miss.
Technology is amazing. It really is. Technology can really simplify certain things.
That part of technology is great and amazing.
I mean, I can go away on vacation or a business trip and be able to access all my emails from my iPhone. Then when I return, I’m no longer inundated with phone messages and emails because I was able to address a lot of them while I was gone.
With the Internet, I can stay in touch with people I probably never would otherwise. I can post blogs on my BlackBerry or iPhone. There are so many things we can do so much more easily now with technology.
There are some of the simpler things in life which are gone with all the current technology, however, that I do miss. I was listening to an ‘American Top 40′ show on the 70s station of my satellite radio. Listening to some of those songs brought back a lot of memories.
Remember the days when you were dating and you called someone on a pay phone, and the operator would keep coming on the phone asking you to deposit another $0.35? So many times you wouldn’t have any more change but you didn’t want the phone call to end, so you’d start checking the phone and the ground for lost change. For those of you who don’t remember this, allow me a minute to reminisce.
The problem with the whole pay phone thing as someone who was living in New York City, was that pay phones were generally pretty disgusting. The smell of the mouthpiece alone was always repulsive. That part of “simpler” times I don’t miss at all!
What I do miss is coming home to an answering machine and seeing who called you when you were gone. With cell phones and everything right at your fingertips, you don’t get to experience that feeling you got when you came home to a blinking light on an answering machine (signaling that you had messages).
I remember meeting someone and coming home hoping to see that blinking light, and then arriving home to find either no blinking light or that the blinking light was a message from someone else. It was part of dating — that anticipation about the answering machine.
There was no *69. You couldn’t just pick up the phone, dial *69 and see who called you. There was no Caller ID so you couldn’t even see the phone number of that girl who called you but didn’t leave a message.
Dating was more about guessing. You’d wonder, “When is this person going to call? How long are they going to wait to call me?”
Back then if you were in a relationship and got into a fight, you’d be out with your friends and be calling on your answering machine and having to put in your “secret code” to check your messages (and see if your significant other had called). I remember how much fun it was to have a secret code.
Answering machines “voices” back then sounded so mechanical. That voice telling you how many messages you had didn’t resemble a human voice in any way.
I also used to change my answering machine message constantly. I’d change the song I’d put on there and my greeting depending on my mood. I always wanted to create a good listening experience for the women who called me.
One time I had the theme song from “The Brady Bunch” on my answering machine message and came home to about 37 hang-up “clicks” on my answering machine. When I answered the phone the next time the phone rang, i asked the woman on the phone if she was the one who had been calling and hanging up, and she said it was her and that she just wanted to hear that Brady Bunch song over and over again.
Those were some good times. They were simpler times.
Technology certainly is great. With technology you can cruise the Internet. You can go on a website like match.com and meet someone amazing from somewhere across the country, and you can communicate in real time with anyone in the world. You can get a phone call when you’re driving and not have to wait until you’re home.
What you miss with all this technology and instant results is the suspense you used to have with things. It was like Christmas and waiting to see what Santa brought you. You’d come home and be excited to see if you got a message and, if so, from whom. Sometimes you were happy because it was that woman you called earlier, and other times you were a little disappointed because it was just your friend leaving you a message.
I wouldn’t want to go back in time and be without all the awesome technology of today, but I think it would be fun to be able to go back in time for a week or so and get to re-experience all that great anticipation I used to feel. What do you miss that is gone now because of technology? Share with me your favorite story.
Also, share with me your favorite answering machine story or the thing you miss most from when you were young and dating.
I remember when I was a kid, I used to play pretend with my friends. Along with my younger brother, we’d have a bunch of toy guns with us and let our friends borrow them. We pretend were a bunch of army men trying to defeat the other army men. We’d have M16’s, handguns, grenades, and walkie talkies! Hahaha
We would hide behind trees, run around to catch the other guy, and even use the walkie talkie to inform our teammates that we either killed a guy or captured. Hahaha! Another thing in my childhood was just the joy of hanging out of the house. I remember the times when you can just go out of the house with friends and see the neighborhood with great open eyes. You never worried about whether your parents were going to worry at all. They just let you out and you’d come back anyway. Also were the street games like Volleyball, dodgeball, Filipino street games. It was the joy of truly living as a kid.
Now, they’re gone. When the emergence of MMORPG (or in layman’s terms, games that involved a lot of players) and Counter Strike (first-person shooter game that became ever-so popular) came around the very-late 90’s, the great good times came to a halt. Suddenly, my friends stopped coming to my house. It wasn’t just the games; cellphones became so popular as well. Then as we entered the 2000’s, the only thing you can see people do most nowadays is cellphones, more games and lots of Friendster and Facebook here in the Philippines.
So these are the things I truly missed when technology came bursting in. You’re right David. It would be fun to go back and experience that wonderful feeling again. Or maybe I’ll just call my friends, go to a park and play pretend. Be childish again! hahahaha
Thanks David for the blog.
Hi David. It’s fun to reminisce. I just miss those days when you could just enjoy a peaceful time without having to turn off ur phone and coming back to impatient people asking why you didn’t pick up or text back; you touched on it in your ‘break up with your cell phone’ blog. I have a question for you. When you would go back for that week, would it be with the knowledge that you have now or exactly like it was back in the day?
I miss…dinner with my siblings with or without the t.v.! Now we just eat on our seperate times.
good ole times and times are passing by faster than ever, and technology seems like so hard to keep track of.
kismet- why you eat separate now?
“I also used to change my answering machine message constantly. I’d change the song I’d put on there and my greeting depending on my mood. I always wanted to create a good listening experience for the women who called me.”
wow that was you David, by seeing and hearing you i would never guess that you were 47, i feel like you are 37 or something.
what time that must been to live, and see where we are today.
Jimmi- I agree too David doesn’t look anywhere close to his age, b/c he really takes care of himself, and lives what he preaches!
Todays blog is touching for me, it is a great example that time will wait for no man, the world will continue to change, continue to move, you will have to go with the nature, and live it fully each day.
that was great what you wrote Rick!
Thanks, buddy!
It certainly brings up my dating memories, I would rush home after work to check the messages, and even wait by the answering machine, when the next person called I would pickup and find out it was someone else.
That anticipation gave a huge rush. I wish I can go back for a week and re-experience those moments, technology definitely makes this place a whole new world.
I don’t i can go back to past for a week without my iphone:)
i am so addicted to technology, god what would happen to the geeks if it fails, they will end up committing suicide or turn themselves into robots:)
Julia-
would you say that technology made it easier to meet more people or helped your dating life more, curious??
Dr. Who:
My siblings and my parents all eat at seperate times and not together because their doing their own thing: videogames, computer, watching tv etc. And I’m guilty of that also.
Once in awhile I would eat in the kitchen with my mom and my sisters and have some good laughs and talks. I enjoy those times.
I never used the phone or the answering machine much when I was a kid. But I do know that… b/c of technology, I’m always checking the internet or something now. I can’t go without it!!!
I miss the times when I didn’t have to always worry on who contacted or didn’t contact me.