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I actually miss the concept of house phones. Instead of exclusively person-to-person communication, families would call other families to catch up and sometimes

I actually miss the concept of house phones. Instead of exclusively person-to-person communication, families would call other families to catch up and sometimes even pass the phone around to talk to the grandparents, aunts and uncles, etc.

secstate 2y ago
That's a facinating obsevation! I hadn't consider the side effects of calling a common phone and interacting with other people rather than exclusively the one person you wanted to talk/text with. Probably distances you from (or never allows you to know) those adjacent to the person you already know.
anal_reactor 2y ago
My siblings are much older than I am and when I was 10 my sister was starting her relationship with now-husband. One time he called our house phone, I picked up, and said "yeah sister is home but she's busy at the moment so you can spend five minutes talking to me instead"
ssl-3 2y ago
It may have been decades ago, but there was a time when it did not seem awkward or even unusual to just...call someone's house, or to simply stop by. There was usually a purpose in this that was more profound than just being bored or lonely or something, but none was really required. And maybe the person they were trying to find wasn't home right now, but that was OK. It was not weird to talk to whoever for a minute, or to hang out for awhile. Nowadays, the ubiquity of personal pocket supercomputers means that the closest most people ever get to that kind of generally-welcome (if unexpected) interaction is a text message. "Hey, I'm in front of your house. Are you home?" And maybe that works more efficiently between two individuals than knocking on the door did, but otherwise this present way of doing things mostly just serves to further increase our social isolation. Sometimes it seems that the closer it is that our technology allows us to be, the further it is that we actually become.
- bobthepanda 2y ago
  unfortunately, these days the inundation of spam from hucksters trying to sell you something, or worse, has now made everyone extremely distrustful of unprovoked interaction.
  - deleted 2y ago
    [deleted]
  - graemep 2y ago
    There is a lot less of that in IRL interaction than online interaction. I find months can go buy without anyone knocking on my door. IT does not help with the just phoning bit but does with stopping by. I do not get that many spam calls but I think that varies a lot, especially between countries with different laws about it.
  - ssl-3 2y ago
    Not everyone is paranoid. Besides, telemarketing, door-to-door sales, and scams of all kinds aren't new -- at all. All of these things existed Back In The Day when a friend might just knock on the door because they happened to be in the neighborhood, too.
- Aeglaecia 2y ago
  i yearn for the days of dropping in unannounced , which is now a social faux pas
little_bear 2y ago
I set up an old rotary phone via twilio as a house phone for our kids. They just dial 1-9, each number is programmed to a different family member. Their cousins also have one, so they can call each other whenever they want. It’s great to also have a phone that just rings in the house, for when you don’t care about getting a specific person.
- aceazzameen 2y ago
  That sounds awesome. Do you have any more info on your setup anywhere?
xattt 2y ago
I’m looking to set up an Asterisk server that takes calls over Bluetooth on any paired cell phones inside the house, or falls back to a VoIP line if no phones are at home. Similarly, I find that it’s hard to catch family on their cell and much easier when I call their home.
8note 2y ago
does that not still happen for you? passing cell phones around still happens for my family
pjmlp 2y ago
I can vouch that pass the phone around is still a thing in southern Europe, or being sundenly dropped into a group video call where everyone gathers around the phone to be in view.

secstate 2y ago

That's a facinating obsevation! I hadn't consider the side effects of calling a common phone and interacting with other people rather than exclusively the one person you wanted to talk/text with. Probably distances you from (or never allows you to know) those adjacent to the person you already know.

anal_reactor 2y ago

My siblings are much older than I am and when I was 10 my sister was starting her relationship with now-husband. One time he called our house phone, I picked up, and said "yeah sister is home but she's busy at the moment so you can spend five minutes talking to me instead"

ssl-3 2y ago

It may have been decades ago, but there was a time when it did not seem awkward or even unusual to just...call someone's house, or to simply stop by. There was usually a purpose in this that was more profound than just being bored or lonely or something, but none was really required. And maybe the person they were trying to find wasn't home right now, but that was OK. It was not weird to talk to whoever for a minute, or to hang out for awhile. Nowadays, the ubiquity of personal pocket supercomputers means that the closest most people ever get to that kind of generally-welcome (if unexpected) interaction is a text message. "Hey, I'm in front of your house. Are you home?" And maybe that works more efficiently between two individuals than knocking on the door did, but otherwise this present way of doing things mostly just serves to further increase our social isolation. Sometimes it seems that the closer it is that our technology allows us to be, the further it is that we actually become.

bobthepanda 2y ago
unfortunately, these days the inundation of spam from hucksters trying to sell you something, or worse, has now made everyone extremely distrustful of unprovoked interaction.
- deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
- graemep 2y ago
  There is a lot less of that in IRL interaction than online interaction. I find months can go buy without anyone knocking on my door. IT does not help with the just phoning bit but does with stopping by. I do not get that many spam calls but I think that varies a lot, especially between countries with different laws about it.
- ssl-3 2y ago
  Not everyone is paranoid. Besides, telemarketing, door-to-door sales, and scams of all kinds aren't new -- at all. All of these things existed Back In The Day when a friend might just knock on the door because they happened to be in the neighborhood, too.
Aeglaecia 2y ago
i yearn for the days of dropping in unannounced , which is now a social faux pas

little_bear 2y ago

I set up an old rotary phone via twilio as a house phone for our kids. They just dial 1-9, each number is programmed to a different family member. Their cousins also have one, so they can call each other whenever they want. It’s great to also have a phone that just rings in the house, for when you don’t care about getting a specific person.

aceazzameen 2y ago
That sounds awesome. Do you have any more info on your setup anywhere?

xattt 2y ago

I’m looking to set up an Asterisk server that takes calls over Bluetooth on any paired cell phones inside the house, or falls back to a VoIP line if no phones are at home. Similarly, I find that it’s hard to catch family on their cell and much easier when I call their home.

8note 2y ago

does that not still happen for you? passing cell phones around still happens for my family

pjmlp 2y ago

I can vouch that pass the phone around is still a thing in southern Europe, or being sundenly dropped into a group video call where everyone gathers around the phone to be in view.