Janet Gogerty's Blog: Sandscript - Posts Tagged "telephone"
Sandscript on Facebook
'Are you on Facebook?' A common question; in days gone by people would have asked 'Are you on the telephone?' More recently the question in social and business contexts will have been 'Are you on the Internet?' Now it is usually assumed you are and the query will be 'What's your e-mail address?' If addressing the elderly, tact is required, some would be insulted at the suggestion that they may not be keeping up with the times, whilst others will retort angrily that they have no intention of getting a computer.
When I was in the Brownies I had to resit my Golden Hand badge - I had failed the telephone test. All that was required was to make a phone call, in my case at the home of a stranger ( a respectable middle aged woman I hasten to add; now days she would have had to go through numerous checks first ) as my parents did not possess a telephone, which was the reason why I was nervous.
My mother, tied up with two younger children, once sent me and my sensible older friend to a phone box with a message for my father at the office and detailed instructions for the telephone box. We failed to master buttons A and B and the message was never sent. You will gather that our friends and neighbours did not possess a phone either, perhaps it was considered too expensive or unnecessary.
Now we can skype across the world with several people and several generations squeezing onto the screen.
But Facebook is different from e-mailing and skyping, it is not personal and most of us have a love hate relationship. Are we there to see people's holiday pix, show off how many friends we have, to have a laugh or check if family members are still alive? I logged in recently to be confronted with a large, square, brown fury creature with a large shark mouth. In various shots he was depicted with a cigarette in his mouth, a can of beer in his fury mitt and a piza on his plate. This was my introduction to a new family member from Japan, Domo Kun Plush, who now shares a rented room with a human family member. You never know who you are going to meet on Facebook.
When I was in the Brownies I had to resit my Golden Hand badge - I had failed the telephone test. All that was required was to make a phone call, in my case at the home of a stranger ( a respectable middle aged woman I hasten to add; now days she would have had to go through numerous checks first ) as my parents did not possess a telephone, which was the reason why I was nervous.
My mother, tied up with two younger children, once sent me and my sensible older friend to a phone box with a message for my father at the office and detailed instructions for the telephone box. We failed to master buttons A and B and the message was never sent. You will gather that our friends and neighbours did not possess a phone either, perhaps it was considered too expensive or unnecessary.
Now we can skype across the world with several people and several generations squeezing onto the screen.
But Facebook is different from e-mailing and skyping, it is not personal and most of us have a love hate relationship. Are we there to see people's holiday pix, show off how many friends we have, to have a laugh or check if family members are still alive? I logged in recently to be confronted with a large, square, brown fury creature with a large shark mouth. In various shots he was depicted with a cigarette in his mouth, a can of beer in his fury mitt and a piza on his plate. This was my introduction to a new family member from Japan, Domo Kun Plush, who now shares a rented room with a human family member. You never know who you are going to meet on Facebook.
Sandscript Skyping
Sandscript Skyping
Once upon a time the future was a Telly Phone. We would sit at our phone table, the earpiece and mouthpiece still connected to the phone by a curly wire, the phone still attached by a cable which eventually led out of the house and to the telegraph pole. But also on the table was a small screen on which we could see who we were talking to. Most of us wondered if we would like such an invention; you would have to get dressed before you phoned someone, you couldn’t leap out of the bath and wrap a towel round if the phone rang.
It has come to pass, but like most predictions of the future not in the way we imagined. At first we wondered what people were talking about when they asked if we Skyped Australia or the USA. It started with desk top computers, a time was prearranged by email or perhaps the real telephone, because it would not work if the other person was not on line when you called.
Now we use a variety of devices to Skype, Facetime and WhatsApp video; most people are on line most of the time with their smart phones. We are still chatting on the phone. In universal scenes, several generations may be peering at their ipad and greeting Great Grandma on the other side of the world, marvelling at the clear picture. Using a mobile phone enables the caller to take you on a tour of their new house or make you jealous as they broadcast live scenes of their holiday to your lap top.
It is not always perfect, the feeling of being in the same room can be marred by your loved one’s face becoming pixillated or their voices taking on an underwater timbre. Is it the weather conditions or the fact that they have Apple and you do not? We grumble, but it is a miracle that we are seeing each other at all.
In my novel ‘Quarter Acre Block', the Palmer family emigrate to Australia in 1964. Their friends and family have no idea how they are getting on until they write an aerogramme, then comes the wait for a reply. Phone calls back to England were possible for migrants, via cable laid under the oceans, a wonder of technology itself, but very expensive, with fathers standing by with a stop watch to make sure three minutes was not exceeded...
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Quarter-Acre...
Once upon a time the future was a Telly Phone. We would sit at our phone table, the earpiece and mouthpiece still connected to the phone by a curly wire, the phone still attached by a cable which eventually led out of the house and to the telegraph pole. But also on the table was a small screen on which we could see who we were talking to. Most of us wondered if we would like such an invention; you would have to get dressed before you phoned someone, you couldn’t leap out of the bath and wrap a towel round if the phone rang.
It has come to pass, but like most predictions of the future not in the way we imagined. At first we wondered what people were talking about when they asked if we Skyped Australia or the USA. It started with desk top computers, a time was prearranged by email or perhaps the real telephone, because it would not work if the other person was not on line when you called.
Now we use a variety of devices to Skype, Facetime and WhatsApp video; most people are on line most of the time with their smart phones. We are still chatting on the phone. In universal scenes, several generations may be peering at their ipad and greeting Great Grandma on the other side of the world, marvelling at the clear picture. Using a mobile phone enables the caller to take you on a tour of their new house or make you jealous as they broadcast live scenes of their holiday to your lap top.
It is not always perfect, the feeling of being in the same room can be marred by your loved one’s face becoming pixillated or their voices taking on an underwater timbre. Is it the weather conditions or the fact that they have Apple and you do not? We grumble, but it is a miracle that we are seeing each other at all.
In my novel ‘Quarter Acre Block', the Palmer family emigrate to Australia in 1964. Their friends and family have no idea how they are getting on until they write an aerogramme, then comes the wait for a reply. Phone calls back to England were possible for migrants, via cable laid under the oceans, a wonder of technology itself, but very expensive, with fathers standing by with a stop watch to make sure three minutes was not exceeded...
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Quarter-Acre...
Sandscript
I like to write first drafts with pen and paper; at home, in busy cafes, in the garden, at our beach hut... even sitting in a sea front car park waiting for the rain to stop I get my note book out. We
...more
- Janet Gogerty's profile
- 19 followers
