Rotary-dial phones

[pne]

Prompted by seeing Amy playing with an old rotary-dial phone she got from her grandparents, and seeing that she didn't know what to do with the dial (she only picked up the receiver and talked). No wonder, since I doubt she's seen one before, and it's likely she won't be seeing (m)any in the future, either.

(Funny that the little icon for "phone" used in various places is nearly always a rotary-dial one, though!)

[Poll #1170050]

Comments

[alsatia.livejournal.com]

*twitch* Too many questions where none of the choices was what I wanted to answer.

I was born in 1980 and we still had a rotary dial phone when we moved in 1988, but I don't know precisely when we replaced it. We definitely didn't have it anymore by 1994, but that range overlaps the options in the poll.

I've always used the term "dial" in regards to phone numbers, and while I know the origin (and thus can't say I didn't think of the connection) it's not accurate for me to say that I think it doesn't fit, because frankly I'm annoyed when people refuse to accept that words develop new meanings over time and get all anal about how "that's not what it used to mean".

But aside from the poll...Amy would know how to use a phone with a keypad? I don't even remember using a phone before I was 6 or 7, and I'm pretty sure at that point I didn't dial it myself, just talked when a family member handed me the receiver. Oh how the times are changing.

[pne.livejournal.com]

But aside from the poll...Amy would know how to use a phone with a keypad?

Well, not in the sense that she could use a real phone to call a real person by dialling their number, but in the sense that she understands the concept "you have to press some buttons before the other person will answer".

Though now that you mention it, I don't even know whether she knows that concept.

[conuly]

She's still, what, three? If she doesn't know now, she will soon.

Which reminds me, I need to teach Ana my phone number. (I say mine because I go out most often with her, and because I'm the one most likely to hear my phone ringing and pick it up - her parents have phone issues.)

[pne.livejournal.com]

Yes, three. Turning four in September.

[ifeedformula.livejournal.com]

James is the same way. He knows you have to push buttons to call people and that you push a certain set of numbers to call the police (he thinks it's 991 XD).