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scotchtapeofficial:

it was a fucking house phone that i was so stoked to have because it was mine that i kept in my own room and i cannot believe technology has progressed at the speed of FUCKING light to the point where this is a hilarious artifact to have had in like 6th grade and now theres kindergarteners with iphones

 

princess-peridot:

How did you know if you dialed the right number

 

scotchtapeofficial:

each button made a different tone so the numbers you dialed a lot became a subconscious melody in your head and if you hit the wrong button by accident it would sound like a wrong note in a song you know by heart

 

teaboot:

i can’t beleive that is a legitimate question in my lifetime

 

poipoipoi-2016:

It’s a legitimate question *now*.  

Because people don’t do this and this is terrible UX. 

 

brin-bellway:

Do you notice how the question says “how did you know if you dialed the right number” *full stop*, but the *answer* is specific to “numbers you dialed a lot”?

Yeah, dialing numbers you *didn’t* dial a lot–which was just about all of them if you were a kid! it’s not like kids have much reason to talk on house phones, not being in charge of coordinating any appointments and not having had much time to accumulate friends-no-longer-in-physical-proximity!–was *exactly* as anxiety-ridden as it sounds. It’s such a relief to have screens to double-check with. Even *dumbphones* like the phone at work have screens now.

(Plus phones with screens *also* make the button tones, as a second layer of defence. Do y’all not have the button tones on your smartphones? Did you turn them off?)

 

maryellencarter:

I’m not sure if the button sounds on my phone defaulted to off or if I turned them off by choice, but I have never felt any need to turn them on. This probably relates to the fact that I can’t remember a melody without words and that phone numbers do not adhere to the melodic principles of Boethius anyway (okay, I never actually made any sense of Boethius, but he was the “Great Book” cited on Why Music We Don’t Like Is Objectively Bad and as a side note Stop Liking Pentatonic As A Scale It’s Unchristian) uhhh where was I. Right. I can’t remember numbers anyway, I can’t remember the little tune associated with the numbers, so they just all sound wrong. It occurs to me though, and the deficiencies of my auditory memory may be assessed by the fact that I’m not actually sure, but in the part of my day job that involves helping set up brand new phones and then telling the person “now please dial our test call number which is such and such”, I don’t think I usually hear dialing beeps before the announcement. Maybe new smartphones come with the dialpad beeps off by default.

There is a distinct possibility that smartphone button tones are opt-in, and my family is just in the habit of switching them on. As it happens, my first-ever SIM card† is currently in the mail, so I guess it will soon be time for me to investigate a phone app’s settings myself.

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@sigmaleph​ [link], there’s still the part where you’re waiting for them to pick up! And it’s been my experience that often *somebody else* will pick up the phone, and then you have to sort out whether this person is sharing a phone line with the intended person or whether they’re completely unrelated.

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†not counting the PC Mobile one that came with my first phone, which I never activated

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Tags:

#reply via reblog #Brin owns *two* 2010’s computers now #proud citizen of The Future #amnesia cw #is the blue I see the same as the blue you see