I love this phone. However, I was considering getting rid of it. My dorm at college is allegedly going to remove the land lines from the rooms to save money on something that most students don't use, and when the phone rings at home, it is never for me. I don't really need any phone besides my cell. It's pretty, but is it practical?
Besides that, it's an awfully outdated design. It has no caller ID, which makes it terrible for ducking telemarketers, annoying friends, and ex-boyfriends. Without an answering machine, screening calls is impossible. With one, the process is still a bit obnoxious, at best.
It also has a cord. You can't multi-task. You can't use telephone time to also fold laundry and catch up on your TiVo recordings. You can't even walk across the room to look up a phone number for someone without putting the phone down first. It isn't suited to the modern lifestyle. Perhaps I should try to find a recent, cordless variation of this design, with caller-ID elegantly fitted into the base, along with the date, time, and recent calls. It would still have that old-timey feel; it would just be a bit more functional.
I find this disturbingly indicative of the changes made to our communications over time, specifically in regards to the phone. Without an efficient way of screening calls, you simply had to answer the phone. Without a way to walk and talk and feed the cat all at once, you simply had to engage in conversation, or tell your friend or business associate that you needed to call them back later. Things were slower back in the day, and communication was perhaps a bit more honest. I do appreciate the convenience of modern technology, and I wouldn't dare undo the progress if I could, but I can't help lament the loss of a day when this telephone design was perfectly acceptable.
After thinking such things, I couldn't help but plug the phone back in.
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