Their smartphones do everything, but can teenagers master old tech and life skills – from reading a map to setting an alarm clock? (The Guardian)
Item 9: 'foundation pen'
Their smartphones do everything, but can teenagers master old tech and life skills – from reading a map to setting an alarm clock? (The Guardian)
Item 9: 'foundation pen'
I have handed fps to teenagers on the odd occasion. One told me she could use an FP, and then wrote with the nib upside down, and wondered why it was scratchy.
"That's one of those ink pens, Sir," they say.
I see the odd Lamy, but that's about it.
The kids in the posher schools (not mine) use fountain pens.
catbert (October 19th, 2019)
My son has started to use fountain pens. When our children see us using our pens, and not just collecting them, it peaks their curiosity. The concept of actually using a pen that is twice or three times or more their age is quite intriguing, especially when you compare these pens to antique cars.
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BlkWhiteFilmPix (October 21st, 2019)
I can see today's kids having trouble with rotary phones, cassette players, or maps on paper, but radios? Surely they aren't so unfamiliar with those.
"If a thing is worth doing, it is worth doing badly."
G.K. Chesterton
My 15 year old grand daughter loves her Lamy and stationary. Don't worry about the younger folks, they'll figure it out just like everyone else did.
TAYLORPUPPY (October 28th, 2019)
You know, supposedly I'm a Millennial since I don't fit into Generation X, born in 1988, but I don't feel like one, act like one, or think like one. I really feel like people born in the early-mid 80s to early 90s don't quite fit into the Millennials, for a significant portion of our youth many of the modern technologies hadn't become ubiquitous, like computers, cell phones or the internet. My family didn't have a computer till I was in almost in middle school and internet till almost high school. I didn't get a cell phone until I had already graduated high school. My family was middle class, too.
"Enjoyment: 3/10 Achievement: 5/10"
Yeesh... well what would you expect for something "sitting in a drawer" uncleaned, etc?
You are literally what a Millenial is: someone who came of age in both worlds.
Contrary to how the media portrays "Millenials" as entitled young brats, The majority of millenials are in their late 20s to late 30s.
I, too, am a Millenial and I see fellow Millenials, at a rate far faster than other groups, longing for old tech. More than half the people I know have some interest in old tech, be it a owning a record player, knitting, sewing, woodworking, blacksmithing, gardening...the list goes on and on.
This article is geared towards today's teenagers, "Generation Z".
Last edited by AzJon; October 23rd, 2019 at 11:49 AM.
I wonder how much of that is connected to the hipster movmement.I, too, am a Millenial and I see fellow Millenials, at a rate far faster than other groups, longing for old tech. More than half the people I know have some interest in old tech, be it a owning a record player, knitting, sewing, woodworking, blacksmithing, gardening...the list goes on and on.
Probably a lot of it. No one is doing it as a career, but the interest is still there. I think its a larger whiplash/response as a counter to the breakneck speed that technology and social media and connectivity is dominating our lives.
No, I don't want a TV that listens in on what I say. No, I don't want a machine that only works when connected to the internet. No, I don't want a watch that tracks my heart beat all day every day. All just profoundly useless things.
Give me things I can see in my hands and reap the fruits of my labor.
Last edited by AzJon; October 23rd, 2019 at 01:40 PM.
When we busk at a restaurant, millennial people bring their children up front to watch us. They say, "Listen to all the music they can play and they don't even have a computer."
Last week there were six people sitting around a table with their heads bowed. At first, I thought they were saying grace. Nope; they were all looking at their phones and likely texting each other.
"Nothing is enough for the man to whom enough is too little." -Epicurus-
Good on the parents exposing their kids to music like that.
My Dad and stepmom (60s) and their friends are glued to their phones at all times when we go out with them. Won't even put them on silent during a dinner. It's a cacophony of terrible text alert sounds and half-finished sentences.
I used to take my late mother to her temple and help her with the bulky prayer book. I'm now imagining every synagogue or church having an app. You just open it up, and it automatically brings up the right prayer or hymn for that part of the service.
Now someone is going to tell me that the thing I've imagined is already being used, but I'm not going to check.
"If a thing is worth doing, it is worth doing badly."
G.K. Chesterton
Yesterday I was using my Esterbrook Delux and a young woman said she liked my pen. I explained it was made in the '40's and that I had restored it. After I left she sent me her contact information. I asked if she would like for me to restore one for her. She said she would be happy to pay me, but I asked if I could gift it to her. She agreed. Later I found an LJ online and have replacement sacs and jbars in route. She said she loves vintage items and has her grandmother's typewriter. What I think is cool is how this simple encounter allowed two generations to find common interest.
I tend to think less about age. All that I know is what is occurring in the present. If one person is 30 and the other 60, age is the least of importance. There is more than brings us together than tears us apart.
Perhaps podcasts (effectively on-demand radio) have superseded radio?
Yes. And typewriters, razors ...
In a similar vein: From the silent generation to 'snowflakes': why you need friends of all ages
I was likely as old as dirt when I arrived and I’m certainly older now. I enjoy taking out the 64 Plymouth and letting the cool kids take me for a ride. Manual breaks manual steering etc. Best one is that Chrysler push button transmission that looks like a radio...
It's depressing how much money there is to be made writing nasty little articles that pander to the unkindness of the human heart. I don't know how to live in the wilderness making all my own tools, hunting for my own food, doing what's necessary to live without stores, and neither does all but a tiny minority of humanity. I could learn if I was taught. Why should I care that the latest generation doesn't know how to use tools that have become obsolete and aren't a part of their lives?
It was marginally better when the narrative was how fast technology is moving and how hard it is to keep up. Now millennials have done such a good job programming easy to use software that the average baby boomer thinks they know how to do everything again
I'm right there with you on not missing typewriters at all, but the truth is that many of us (I'm gen-X and no hipster!) just plain get better shaves from a safety razor, rather than the latest over priced, plastic, five-blade, corporate face scraper.
People you like and enjoy the company of can be old or young and your age difference shouldn't matter, so long as none of the involved parties are taking advantage... but that's true for any relationship, regardless of age differential!
Growing up our family cars were a '62 Plymouth wagon with the pushbutton tranny and after that one a '64 Plymouth Belvedere sedan, but it had "3 on the tree".
David-
So many restoration projects...
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