'Have smartphones destroyed a generation?'

It can be. But every generation of kids ever has found ways to use time that adults considered suboptimal. And by definition, texting involves a form of social contact with at least one other human.

 

I certainly get it. My mom, to this day, is notoriously nosy. I can remember her in high school always poking her nose into my room or happening to wander nearby when I was on the phone. I'm almost certain she wanted to see if I was talking to a girl. I can see why texting is preferred. I think my mom was in the 99th percentile of parent snoops, but I'm sure most parents snoop a little more than teens would like.

 

My parents were teasers, and in the house we lived in until my junior year in high school, we had one phone ... on the wall in the hallway. When we moved to the house my mother still lives in, we had TWO! And the second one was in the basement in the laundry room. There's a reason I was a junior in high school before I had my first date.

 

I graduated high school and left for college in 1987, at that time my parents' house still had one phone, mounted to the wall in the kitchen, with a six foot cord.
You couldn't reach a chair to sit down when you were on the phone.

At some point after I had moved out, they got a cordless phone.

 

They always do that. "Oh sure, guys, you put the pool in after I finish college and leave home."

Wonder what MommaQuant and I are going to do ... balance our checkbook, I suppose.

 

One of my childhood places had a party line, so forget any lengthy (or private) convos there, and another was in a place that charged by the minute for all calls. Same deal -- hi, yeah, bye. Kept it under a minute.

 

Amazing to think of a world where making a long-distance call got you a bigger stink eye from parents than ordering steak at a restaurant.

 

Shit, we had to pay by the minute for LOCAL calls. They didn't want us to thrive, evidently

 

This is the guy who literally wakes up in the middle of the night to smoke cigarettes bc his nicotine fix is that bad. I've heard he also smokes in the shower. Whatever, it seems to work ok for him bc he still pulls some top shelf woman at his crusty old age.

 

Mike Brady had the right idea:

 

Ol' Mike Brady looks like he's about to slip Alice an extra fiver to walk the kids to the park for an hour so he can slip Carol his fiver.