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A Most Favored Activity of Women Everywhere: Talking on the Phone! October 7, 2008 - 15:40:32
Jay Leno recently asked a panel of three relatively young people, "Who invented the telephone?" The panel seemed stumped, until one young thirty-something woman responded, "Wasn't it Verizon?" Although she didn't have a clue that Alexander Graham Bell was the culprit, she did seem to understand the import of such an invention. Without the benefit of the telephone, who knows what women would do in their spare time. Talking on the phone was a form of entertainment unknown to our not-so-distant ancestors.
Do you remember the 1940s movies, with stars like Bogart, playing the sleuth, using the telephone in brief and concise conversations which lasted all of a minute? During that decade, talking on the phone was a utilitarian convenience, meant to be used to communicate the barest of facts. It took longer to dial the number than to convey the message. Talking on the phone was a luxury, enjoyed by many, but only to a point.
During the 1950s, talking on the phone took a new turn in everyday usage. It might have cost a fortune to call long distance, but calling your sister or Mom across town was an economical way to exchange family news and gossip. Women could be fixing dinner or baking a pie while simultaneously finding out what got into Sis when she went shopping for a new hat. While her daughter was kneading pie dough into the toughest crust on the planet, Mom was absolutely up to date on the latest news.
As life became more demanding on our work time, talking on the phone provided a way to keep up with the housework and socializing in one fell swoop.
Fast forward to the 1970s. Telephone charges were still pricey, if you wanted to call overseas, but rates fell for calls in a wider area than in Bell's time. Now, you could call friends and relatives some little distance away and talk on the phone for hours without breaking the bank. Talking on the phone was less expensive and more convenient than traveling in person to converse. You could fix dinner, do homework or water your plants while exchanging gossip or just commiserating on the life experience.
Today, talking on the phone is not limited to the old fashioned land line phone. We've got cell phones, internet phones and text messaging to satisfy our urges for phone conversation. Ironically, we seem to have come full circle. Now, we're faced with a myriad of phone calling plans, all of which are costly any way you cut it. Figuring out how to get the most of our phone calling dollar is a challenge. What would Alexander Graham Bell have to say?
- mrknowitall
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