I was in Target a few weeks ago and I overheard (yes I know I eavesdrop too much) and a guy was trying to find a dial phone. He was over 50 at least. His daughter or young girlfriend, was trying to be patient and explain just get over it and accept a push button phone.
He refused stating very strongly only a DIAL PHONE would be acceptable to him.
So I was wondering what old technologies will you never give up. Like I won’t use an electric blanket, I’d rather use 12 of my grandma’s quilt (OK bad example 'cause a quilts probably better anyway, but you get where I’m going with this.)
Are you still searching for eight tracks, or using SHN instead of FLAC or WavPack?
I don’t mean old things that have real collectable values, but just old technologies that you’ll cling to regardless, like say typewriter.
Yeah - books. Aside from that though, I do an astounding percentage of my reading on-line. Magazines, newspapers, blogs…
Even though I take almost all of my pictures digitally anymore, I still insist that the ones I like best get printed on real paper, framed and put on a wall somewhere.
Print newspaper. Ok so I may have no choice but to give it up eventually, like your man from target, but only when it stops showing up on my doorstep every morning.
I spent a long time searching for a decent mechanical scale for the kitchen, in a world where electronic seems to have cornered the market.
Partly the reason for this is that I have fond memories of messing about with my parents kitchen scales as a kid, and learning about weights and measures in a very concrete way which I don’t think numbers on a screen would really replicate.
(other than that, yeah, books. But I think that sentiment is shared by enough people that I needn’t be afraid)
I will not buy a watch that runs on a battery. Spending more money on it is built into the purchase. You HAVE to buy new batteries every couple of years. If I can’t wind it I don’t want it. I don’t wear a watch. lol
Books. I still have vinyl LPs, and once I get the turntable fixed I’ll be back to listening to them. Non-electric blankets. Manual can openers. Hand crank meat grinder. Treadle sewing machine. Probably some others, that’s just off the top of my head.
On the other hand, I’m a big fan of computers, cell phones, and DVDs so I’m not a total Luddite.
My Citizen Eco-Drive watch has no battery; it’s solar powered, and even has a power save mode that stops the second hand when it’s in darkness for any appreciable length of time (the second hand sweeps around to the correct position when it’s exposed to light once again). I left it in a box for a couple of months once, and when I took it out, it was still keeping time perfectly.
Washing dishes by hand. I guess the technology there is the kitchen sink, which I don’t think is in danger of becoming obsolete, so I feel pretty good about this one. I don’t like dishwashers because they have a smell that bothers me. For years I never met anyone else who could smell the dishwasher smell, at times making me suspect I was crazy, but after I mentioned in online once, another Doper piped up to let me know she also disliked dishwasher smell.
I’m still clinging to my answering machine, rather than subscribing to voice mail through the phone company. It’s not so much out of any fondness for the answering machine itself, but more that I don’t want to pay the service charge for the voice mail when I own a perfectly good answering machine.
I can’t think of much old technology that I haven’t thrown aside for new. I’ve moved from VCR to DVD and DVR. I hardly listen to CD’s anymore. I listen to music on my computer or one of my MP3 players. I’ve even quit buying CD’s pretty much and purchase digital downloads of music. I haven’t read a paper for years. I also have the Kindle app on my iPhone and have been purchasing electronic books from Amazon’s Kindle store.
However, I do agree pretty much that battery powered watches are pretty much junk. I have a mechanically powered watch that I only wind when I need it and it is pretty simple to set. And I do have an answering machine for my landline. But it stores messages digitally. It does not use a tape.
Oh, by the way, I’m 52. So I do remember and have used, dial phones, LP records, film cameras, and manual typewriters. And I’m not one bit sad to see them go.
Books, newspapers, vinyl records, leeches, auto-da-fés, alchemy*.
*I can’t tell you how many times I’ve unexpectedly run out of spare change and had to transmute something.
That is bad ass! Sounds expensive as fuck, but bad ass.
I know the technology for a batteryless, nonwinding watch has been around for a good while (Seiko Kinetic), but the longest it could go without having anyone touch it was a week or so, if I remember correctly. Months without being touched is a whole new box of cookies, or something. Plus, seeing the second hand just sweep around to the correct second is cool too.
Fountain pens. Actually, I wouldn’t mind doing absolutely everything via computer, but so long as I have to use a physical pen, I’ll probably prefer it to be a fountain pen.
