General_EffortJust Kidding... Unless?
This is fine🔥🐶☕🔥Put down smartphone. Pick up dumb phone.
#2deep4me
They made fun of that all the way back in Superman The Movie (1978)
Telephone booths were still pretty common until the early 90's
🇰 🌀 🇱 🇦 🇳 🇦 🇰 🇮 I thought it was a weird idea anyway, since every phonebooth I have ever seen is see-thru. Was there a time when they were just opaque boxes or something without any kind of window?
No, but the windows were smaller, scratched and usually rather dirty, esp in nyc.
Supes can move so quickly he’s all changed and his work suit is neatly folded and tucked into its pouch while anyone watching would just see a brief blur. But he’d rather nobody bumps into him while he’s doing it.
What if you saw Kent go in and Superman come out? Wouldn’t that be slightly suspicious?
I think part of the appeal was, every kid was thinking exactly that. “I would be the one who figured out Superman’s secret identity!”
I like this explanation better than the official reasoning.
I bet they first thought of a toilet stall but America has never had sufficient public toilets, plus they have been used for prostitution and gay sex, and they needed their nakedish hero to have a squeaky-clean and heterosexual image so they wouldn’t be banned.
CouldbealeotardThey weren’t designed for privacy. I’m guessing to was to protect against the elements.
Protect the phone, that is. Also enable you to hear and be heard. The clear glass was to prevent anyone hiding in there, for sex or drugs or ambush.
tetris11Pay phones =/= phone booths.
You saw them in restaurants and bars, but the companies didn’t want the hassle of maintaining full on booths.
OpenStarsThere’s still a lot of payphones in my country. They’re free now and no longer accept money and they also provide free wifi. Recently I’ve been seeing signs on them that kids can call Santa
Australia? My guess/ memory is that they earn more from advertising than the cost to maintain them. I think that’s more dystopian. An ageing technology is allowed to keep using public spaces to advertise of they frame it as a public good.
Idk I don’t mind that the very poor that don’t have phones still have an option to make phone calls. I know a lot of victims of abuse use them as a way to make phone calls that aren’t monitored by their abusive partner. The homeless can use them, or maybe your phone died. I don’t recall seeing ads on them but I’m not exactly looking out for payphones.
Plus I’d hardly can a phone call “ageing technology”. I mean yes it’s an old technology, but still very relevant especially for those that don’t have other means of contact
I thought poor people were given free government-paid smartphones? Anyone who qualifies for food stamps can get a free smartphone. Is that no longer a thing? Last time I checked that was around 2016 I guess.
In the US that’s true but don’t remind them or they’ll take it away!
Is this what they started calling Obama phones, since I’m guessing this started during the Obama administration, and that’s just another Republican shitspeak.
The free phone program started earlier but was expanded to smartphones (for Internet and also because homeless people don’t have a landline) under Obama. And yes, Republicans shat on it.
Only if you are super poor enough to qualify, and have time and the capacity to jump through all the hoops to get one, and you live somewhere that there is a provider that has coverage, and ect, ect., then you can get a discount on your cell plan. For some people who are “lucky enough” to be super poor enough, the discount can actually be enough to make the phone essentially $0.
I think they are still around because the government told them they can’t remove them. They are considered a public resource. Remember, Telstra used to be a government entity before it was privatised.
The Telstra pay phone boxes near me now all have massive ridiculously bright screens displaying advertisements. For sure that is their primary purpose now.
Recently I’ve been seeing signs on them that kids can call Santa
That’s adorable :)
Which country? Are you restricted to where you can call? Like local calls only? I’m guessing they are VOIP though?
They use mirrors, mostly.
sp3ctr4lWasn’t Neo mailed a Nokia 8110 to use?
that was to communicate. to actually leave they had to have a landline.
As a burner, not an exit device.
Should have gone for the plan with all the extras included…
DigitPretty sure they could use a cellphone to jack out in Ressurections.
They used mirrors in that film
Was Jack out the term they used? Haven’t seen this in forever. Is this one of those “they knew what they were doing” things?
They used the phrase Jack-In but never Jack-Out
yeah but the earth was a better place to live then
Well, the Matrix previously simulated a utopia but the humans still rebelled. Then, the Matrix simulated 1999 Earth.
The 1990s was the most peaceful and prosperous time in humanity. This is not universal, if you were in Russia, Rwanda or the Yugoslavia, but overall there was fewer conflict. Humanity as a whole was riding high on the end of cold war, democratisation, and economic growth.
a utopia but the humans still rebelled.
Humans will complain no matter what. There is catharsis.
edgemaster72Some might even say the peak of our civilization
Watch the AniMatrix.
There are other ways.
… they are just exceptionally difficult to pull off, and can only be pulled off by exceptional individuals.
… … and they also do not tend to involve a real world hovercraft crew waiting to retrieve your emaciated, atrophied and basically blind body.
You’re on your own.