(article) today's teens tackle 'obsolete' technology

[Chuck Naill]

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.

I wonder how much of that is connected to the hipster movmement.

Yes. And typewriters, razors ...

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.

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.

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!

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...

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".

I've been learning to hone and use a straight razor since July 2018. I can now get the same result as with any safety razor.

I agree with you regarding "taking advantage" of others. It would bother me if the person would feel I was using my gesture other than just passing along the joy of using a vintage fountain pen.

[Kaputnik]

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

The article did not seem at all nasty or unkind to me. One could observe that it's all been said before, of course, but then, much popular journalism comes from rehashing much visited topics.

I think that a bright teenager, if given enough time to play with a rotary phone, would eventually figure out the principle involved, and why it is necessary to turn it all the way around to the finger stop. A bigger generational gap is the impatience with taking that much time to dial a number. But there's nothing in the article that they couldn't adapt to if it were actually necessary.

It's interesting to think about what technology would be antiquated enough that today's fifty through eighty year olds would have trouble figuring it out. Not grousing about the unavailability of modern alternatives, but actually unable to figure out how the older devices work. I'll have to think about that a bit more.

[azkid]

I suspect that getting a steam powered Stanley car started and ready to run would elude a very large number of people alive today.

I saw a video of Jay Leno demonstrating the process at the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, CO a few years back; they have one of the "Steamers" on display in the lobby. Five seconds after seeing the video I still had no idea how to do it. Steam powered machines are just so utterly foreign to me.

[Paddler]

The first time you change the oil in your car's engine and replace the brake pads and replace the spark plugs and secondary ignition wiring (simple things) your whole subjective impression of driving changes. You have learned something about the world that makes you a better driver. You don't have to aspire to being a mechanic or a survivalist for this to be of value to you. Reading about this on a smart phone won't do it for you.

The first time you kill a rabbit or a fish and prepare it for the table alters your subjective impression of the food you eat. You should learn how to cook, sew, hunt, garden, shoot, build a radio, program a computer with machine language, brew beer, distill whisky, ski, operate a motorboat, ride a horse, milk a cow by hand, throw an ax, sharpen a knife -- not to be a survivalist, but to be a worthy inhabitant of this planet. You need to know where your towel is. A smart phone provides too many degrees of separation to do the job.

[Chuck Naill]

Or be a member of society where people specialize in sewing, gardening, making beer, changing spark plugs, etc. I prefer to hone my own razors simply because sending them out would be endless. Vintage +GE radios are cheap on Ebay, why gather the materials to make one? I don't tell others what they should or should not do. I will help them learn what I know if interested. That said, I have repaired many things including my 1999 Tahoe by watching a YouTube video; a Smart Phone is very useful.

[Paddler]

It doesn't matter what is available for cheap on Ebay. When you build a radio you are manipulating one of the most basic phenomena in the universe and making it serve your own ends. When you realize that, you walk differently; your posture changes; the stars mean more to you.

I know people who are so helpless they can't sharpen a kitchen knife when it gets dull. They throw away a dull paring knife and buy a new one. There are people who can't figure out how to furl an umbrella. I don't care if they have servants to do it for them; I don't want to be around people like this. They give me the creeps.

[Ray-VIgo]

My advice is to take freely from both old and new technology to accomplish tasks. I carry an iPad, a smartphone, a mechanical wristwatch, and a fountain pen. There are no contradictions, only pragmatism in it. My desk phone at home is a rotary phone, but I can use text, email, chat, etc just the same. I use both an axe and a hydraulic wood splitter to get firewood ready for winter - they work well together. I might write a few emails in the morning and a couple handwritten letters or cards in the afternoon.

My point here is to freely take what you want to get done what you have to do. We have some helpful technology today, but feel free to take old technology and adapt it to your use. No need to be pharisaical in terms of setting rules for what technology you can and cannot use - be guided by pragmatism. A fountain pen or typewriter sometimes improves my writing by forcing me to think and to organize things, and that's when they serve to best effect.


[And anyone who doesn't miss typewriters probably has never typed using a good Royal #10 with fresh ribbon. I still do some forms and envelopes on mine, which was passed down through a couple generations from the original owner who had bought it new for his law office about 1930. But that's just me.]

[FredRydr]

...The first time you kill a rabbit or a fish and prepare it for the table alters your subjective impression of the food you eat. You should learn how to cook, sew, hunt, garden, shoot, build a radio, program a computer with machine language, brew beer, distill whisky, ski, operate a motorboat, ride a horse, milk a cow by hand, throw an ax, sharpen a knife -- not to be a survivalist, but to be a worthy inhabitant of this planet....

This also comes to mind:

[azkid]

[And anyone who doesn't miss typewriters probably has never typed using a good Royal #10 with fresh ribbon....]

Similarly, I still miss my Underwood No. 5, sometimes. That was a truly fine machine.

[Ray-VIgo]

[And anyone who doesn't miss typewriters probably has never typed using a good Royal #10 with fresh ribbon....]

Similarly, I still miss my Underwood No. 5, sometimes. That was a truly fine machine.

A well-made, full-sized desk typewriter is still a formidable writing machine.

[FredRydr]

[And anyone who doesn't miss typewriters probably has never typed using a good Royal #10 with fresh ribbon....]

Similarly, I still miss my Underwood No. 5, sometimes. That was a truly fine machine.

A well-made, full-sized desk typewriter is still a formidable writing machine.

https://fpgeeks.com/forum/showthread...l=1#post268325

https://fpgeeks.com/forum/showthread...l=1#post239729

https://fpgeeks.com/forum/showthread...l=1#post239743

[azkid]

A well-made, full-sized desk typewriter is still a formidable writing machine.

Fun, too! My portables just aren't the same. (mom's Smith-Corona Sterling and a 1940s Royal Quiet Deluxe in super shape)

[Paddler]

...The first time you kill a rabbit or a fish and prepare it for the table alters your subjective impression of the food you eat. You should learn how to cook, sew, hunt, garden, shoot, build a radio, program a computer with machine language, brew beer, distill whisky, ski, operate a motorboat, ride a horse, milk a cow by hand, throw an ax, sharpen a knife -- not to be a survivalist, but to be a worthy inhabitant of this planet....

This also comes to mind:

Yay! Good for her!

One of the best things about the computer is that it supplanted the typewriter.

[FredRydr]

...One of the best things about the computer is that it supplanted the typewriter.

Like the guy in the background, I have great respect for devices that once manufactured, require only human power to perform their function (especially if parts are available!).

[Ray-VIgo]

A well-made, full-sized desk typewriter is still a formidable writing machine.

Fun, too! My portables just aren't the same. (mom's Smith-Corona Sterling and a 1940s Royal Quiet Deluxe in super shape)

Some of the portables are quite good, but the larger machine allows a more robust mechanism. I have a Model-O Royal Portable from the 1930s which is nice, but the #10 desk is more capable. The portable works for writing letters and notes, which I guess was its primary purpose back in the day. The #10 desk machine is a good workhorse even 90 years after being made.

[calamus]

I had an Olivetti Lettera 22 in college. Great machine!

[Deb]

I had an Olivetti Lettera 22 in college. Great machine!

Likewise and I agree about its high quality. Like a fool I got rid of it because I thought I had no further use for it. Turned out I was wrong and I bought a Brother portable which was nowhere near as good.

[FredRydr]

Just enter "Olivetti Lettera 22" into an eBay search, and make room on your desk.

[Deb]

I had a fond look at them recently. They have worn well and look as good as new but I couldn't go back to that. Firing words into a word processor has spoilt me forever!

[Ray-VIgo]

The old, precision mechanical goods often travel together when people collect or accumulate things - old fountain pens, film cameras, typewriters, watches, clocks, sometimes bicycles and firearms even. I know a number of people who like this old mechanical stuff and most of them seem to gravitate to the same handful of types of goods. They may not have every type of good, but usually they have more than one collection. I think the typewriter and computer sort of fill different roles today - I know I find differing uses for each. Same with fountain pen and computer or fountain pen and sharpie or ballpoint etc.