This Years Model

I forgot to mention that I got a "Nokia" 225 ( https://www.nokia.com/phones/en_us/nokia-225-4g ) ... it is a 4G candybar-style phone. The ergonomics are classic Nokia but it is not a Nokia: the brand name was bought by Microsoft and sold (?) to HMD Global. Thus, this "Nokia" phone is not a real Nokia. It's garbage. The UI is pretty bad, but the worst offense is what should be an embarrassing bug: the timestamp on received messages are 3 hours behind local time. Thus, if you want your text messages to appear as a conversation, the only known workaround is to disable automatic time setting and set your phone's time manually to 3 hours back (e.g. instead of 10:00, set it to 7:00). It also has no wifi which is absurd. The software is riddled with bugs. Forwarding a long e-mail to text forwarding, for example, causes the phone to reboot. If you mix group messages with individual (e.g. if Sam sends you a text then Sam sends a text to a group including you), the messages start arriving as multimedia messages with blank content and you have to delete the threads to get either one or the other to work—but never both simultaneously. Nonetheless, it's the only halfway decent non-smartphone I could find that supported 4G. As of when I was looking, none supported 5G.

Jason Olshefsky

I guess I'm lucky, because I embrace new technology, but I am still grounded in the real world and I agree with everything you say. I am a ghost in my own way, in that I exist in both camps. I accept that this may mean I am not truly a part of either world. However I believe I am managing it OK.

Dr Andy Hill

I have and loved my startac too, I had pretty much the full kit for it, the slim battery as well as the larger bulge one you have, and the clip-on external pack! I was working for the Telco at the time (AMPS network) and it got a lot of use on my free staff plan! The savvy of us could also put them into "testmode" and scan the channels and listen to phonecalls, oh those were the days. (Current phone also has a special band locking test mode ironically)

Anton

I have to agree with a lot of this, people seeing an algorithmic facade of what reality is. Facebook "top stories" Google "search" that is hijacked to show you ads and skew results of what THEY mould people to see. Fake news and the rest. As you say, come the time they get to my age, the world will have left them behind. The zombie horde (or is that "Hoard") like as you state, person lost in the phone irks me more than anyone. Get off the damn thing unless you are using the device for the benefit of us all. I have a $200AUD 4G dualSIM slab device (I wanted a Blackberry Key2 but they were just crazily overpriced here) My phone is an interesting story, of how it was originally designed to have a removable back, but inviariably got sealed up (though very very easy to get into) it even has a memory card (as well as the 2 SIMs) and a headphone jack, fancy that! It's a basic phone that "does just enough" and I'm more than happy with it. The 5000mAh battery and slowish CPU do help with the 5 day battery life too.

Anton

I'm about Fran's age, I get where she's coming from, but I also don't think it's nearly as bad as all that. Phones have their advantages and disadvantages, like any other huge-deal new technology. I'm a very introverted person and I LOVE the fact that there's now a socially-acceptable thing for me to do (staring at my phone) rather than just standing around awkwardly. I just never got the hang of small talk and at my age it's not like I'm going to pick it up. But when the interactive chat systems that became my social circle in my younger years became something that fit in my pocket, I was grateful for that. I don't have many friends at all, but the fact that we can text each other whenever, wherever, makes it a lot easier to stay connected when getting together in person seems so difficult. Some things I DON'T do with my phone are social media and enabling alerts for every little thing. You can configure a phone to behave the way you want it to, and I do. Alerts are only for incoming messages from people I know and want to talk to, or reminders for events I want to be reminded of. I do use Facebook (grudgingly) but I only do so from a desktop computer with heavy ad blocking. A lot of these worries about phones are just the same worries society has had about every new technology. If you aren't familiar with the Build For Tomorrow podcast, it's about this kind of thing and there are some great episodes to check out. Find these with the Googs or your preferred podcast app: The Scandalous Internet of the 1800s There’s Nothing Wrong With Kids These Days Why New Technology Always Seems Scar‪y‬ Do We Lose Skills Because of Technology? A final note: I, too, had a StarTAC and it was FANTASTIC! I loved that thing! I liked to flip it open by holding the top half and flicking my wrist so the bottom half folded out.

Circuitmike

You've so eloquently explained my distress at the state of things. It seems like tech is fragmenting our society quickly. I hope that we can pull our heads out sooner than later. Great channel Fran!!

Tori

I’m with David P above Fran. There are people like you who ate our Mr Morrison’s. I too am older than you, and I remember plenty of folk who were narrow minded sheep in my teen years in the 70’s. Critical thinking is something I learned early and gave past onto my sons, who do indeed struggle sometimes with the tunnel vision of their peers. So I think there are plenty of people today who live in the present and use tech to their advantage, so all is not lost.

I was using a Nokia 3395 until they shut down 2g in 2020. Modern phones don't do t9 texting as well anymore, which is sad, because that was perfected in the 90s.

i have no terminal yet i must shitpost

Wow. I can so relate to what you said. I am 69 and the future looks bleak for newer generations.

William Alsing

I grew up the same era as you. I remember a lot of adult mentors who taught me so much because they were passionate about their technical jobs and enjoyed broadening the mind of a child who was truly interested. Out of all those adults, Qty. ZERO were pedophiles. My parents allowed me to hang out with adults because they were so much more responsible than kids my own age. I had my garage door open a few years ago, and a kid I recognized from down the street saw the huge 747 cockpit in the garage. He asked if he could see the inside. Just as I would at his age. But I told him he had to bring his mother or father over with him and I'd be glad to show him whatever he wants. He got his mother and I spent about an hour showing him how all the systems flowed on the Flight Engineer's panel and let him play with the flight controls and any switch he wanted to throw. He was just like a kid in a candy store, as I would have been at his age. But I had to have him get his mom or dad. Why? Because thanks to the Internet, and all the news on TV, every single quiet male at the end of a dead-end street MUST be some sort of pedophile. At his age, I would have been confused why I needed a parent with me to see the cockpit. Why would I need my mom or dad to see inside this huge cockpit? If he were genuinely interested, I'd be thrilled to spend hundreds of hours mentoring him about electronics and aircraft. The adults always had the answers in my youth. Now they are taught to fear unknown adults AND they have a cell phone with them so their parents can track them and contact them at any time. The days of mentoring are dead. I suppose I could be a "big brother" knowing I'd pass any screening or background check they would do. This is such a terrible loss of knowledge. Such a terrible loss of curiosity past the damn artificial smart phone reality kids are memorized with. I had to say "get a parent" when in 1977, I'd just say "Sure, I'll turn it on for you" and just let him explore and ask questions. There's no real way he could get hurt in the cockpit and I'm not a future "Dateline NBC" sicko with bodies buried in the basement! So while there is nothing preventing the kid from accessing the "Dark Web" and all its horrors, but a live human adult with knowledge is some sort of automatic threat. Makes me sick. It really does. I hate smart phones with a passion. I have one because it's what I'm forced to use to communicate. But now there's 10 different ways to do it. The company I work for tries to get me to load their "App" so the company email system and meeting calendars can by synced to my smart phone and send alerts all the time. Forget that! Just because I have a smart phone doesn't mean I'm willing to be on some short leash, or choke-hold, by the company 24/7! I replace phones only when I break them and that's usually about 5 years. I could care less if they can take holographic pictures and project 3D images in mid air. PLEASE! Just let me work with my wire strippers and soldering iron. I want something physical I can cant take pride in and NOT be concerned whatsoever about how many followers I would have on Instagram or Facebook. Like you, Fran, I just don't fall into the category of people who have to have the latest and greatest technology every year. Replacing a car every year, at least today, is an absurd idea in the extreme. I forget what model of iPhone I have. I think it's three years old. I don't remember. Don't care. All the "grey beards" at work that enjoyed showing me how to solve complex avionics problems, like my childhood mentors, have all retired now. There is no one left who really, truly cares about what we build. Everybody's head is focused on their phones, even in meetings. Why have them? When did it become acceptable to hold a meeting where the attendees are physically, but not mentally, in the meeting room? I guess I'm just stuck in the 70s. It's MY problem that I don't use the latest and greatest overkill communication software. I can't "keep up" so I just get "fed up"! Oh, and you mentioned toads! That's so funny because I was always able to find them near creeks and streams near my home as a kid. I live right next to a creek now and I have not seen a toad in 20 years. But I used to have a bucket of wet sand in the garage where I would keep and feed the toads little worms. Then I'd eventually let them go. They would always pee on me when I picked them up. I think that's a self-defense mechanism that makes most predators spit them out. It's amazing that we both found toads fascinating creatures as kids. But this is a different world. I don't even have a flat screen TV yet. There's just so many things to create! Venting over. I needed that!

Matt Wietlispach

Aren't you our equivalent of your Mr Morrison? You are accomplished, we love hanging out listening to your stories and learning from you. Not to mention the intelligent conversation. Ok, i'm actually older than you and it is mainly a one way thing, but you reach a lot more people, so not all is lost,

David Peaker

I hear you Fran I glim what you were saying I’m with ya 100%

Geoffrey Waldo

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2021/11/meet-this-unique-compact-android-phone-from-a-japanese-toaster-company/

Steven Ruhl

Yep ... right on 100%. We're witnessing the extinction of humankind, and it's just going to get uglier and uglier.

Jason Olshefsky

As I understand current scientific research on cell phone use, a dopamine response developes in the cell phone user creating the equivalent of drug addiction. Some teenagers who have had their cellphones taken away as punishment for an infraction have actually exhibited hard drug withdrawal symptoms. Fran, I am nearly 30 yrs older than you and am VERY glad I am old. I will not live to see the eventual outcome of this trend.

Carol K Stouffer

Good points. I never understood the clamor for the latest phone, or car. But, full disclosure.. I read old comic books.

MrBelmosan