Watch 2 adorably clueless teens, 17, baffled by a rotary phone

Fox News ^ | 1-9-19 | Frank Miles

[SJackson]

Kids today know plenty, whether it's how to become a social media star on YouTube or how to navigate Snapchat. (It's a snap.) And at every step, their cellphones are close at hand, part extra appendage, part security blanket.

But cellphones are one thing.

And rotary dial models, quite another.

Two adorably clueless 17-year-olds, Jake and Kyle Bumstead of Illinois, got four minutes to dial a number on a rotary phone. It was their first time using such a relic from a bygone age.

Imagine asking an English speaker to parse some Egyptian hieroglyphs.

In this case, it took the pair more than a minute simply to recognize that Step 1 involved lifting the receiver.

[oldvirginian]

Somewhere around 30 years ago Bell Atlantic had a large display at the state fair in Richmond, Va..Telephony Through The Ages. They had phones from all ages.
A group of teens were making fun of the “old fashioned” stuff from the “dark ages”.
A woman old enough to be my grandma asked the kids to figure out how to make a call and pointed them to an old no-dial candlestick phone.
They didn’t have a clue.
I was able to tell them how even though I had never used one myself.

When I told them about party lines they couldn’t believe it. “But didn’t people listen” they asked. Yeah kids, thats why you never said anything you didn’t want the whole world to know because every line had one busybody.

[caww]

I still have a push button phone I use as ‘back up’ during lightening storms if electricity goes off. I can still call out even if no connection with cell or isn’t juiced up.

[caww]

Well I have to say I could relate, real or not, when I first began using my cell phone.

I’m from the generation that when you push something it turns on....no matter how many things I pushed the screen wouldn’t come up. Finally a family member said this is the generation of ‘press and hold’ til it comes up!

[caww]

I love my touch tone ‘back up’ phone! Three times now it’s rescued me when my potable land line went dead in a power outage. But now I do have a cell phone but it’s off all the time unless I’m out.

[Leaning Right]

> Tell them to ignore the crap they’re taught at school and teach their kids the correct way themselves? <

That’s pretty much it. Ask “What did you learn in school today?”, and then filter out the nonsense.

[captain_dave]

IQ of 120 is not genius. That’s typical for a university graduate (of a real program). Genius level is more like 160+

[ridesthemiles]

So I made a crank call to Nancy Pelosi, and told her that there was a worldwide Botox shortage.”””

That is funny.

When I sold my house in 1993 in So Calif, the rotary wall phone was still there. When that buyer sold the house, he said it was still there.....

The phone I use now is a 40+ or so year old Princess phone. No caller ID. No *69 call back-—no call waiting. Just a simple phone & a $20 answering machine.

Am planning on moving this year & driving over 2000 miles hauling horses over 5 days. Everyone keeps hammering at me to buy a cell phone—because ‘You cannot drive that far without a cell phone”.

I have driven over 1 MILLION miles & did all of it without a cell phone. Have a CB if I have a problem. Otherwise-—I am not worried.

[ridesthemiles]

There is nothing that prevents PARENTS from using flash cards & teaching their kids multiplication tables.

[Rusty0604]

I make multiplication tables for my grandkids and teach them my self.

[redfreedom]

For some reason many young people will not watch older movies. They should, it’s a great resource for cultural history. Imagine today’s kids watching a movie without nudity, the F word, unrelenting violence, homosexuality or political spin.

[ridesthemiles]

When I was kid, I lived on a dairy farm in rural Wisconsin.

The phone there was a CRANK PHONE mounted on the wall of the kitchen. 20 party line. 2 shorts & a long was our “number”. There was a special ring for an emergency. IF that rang, you were supposed to just pick up the phone & LISTEN to who had the emergency & what it was so you could go help.

[ridesthemiles]

THEY PRINT-—and I have had this conversation with more than one local kid.

I told him-—wait until you have to sign papers to get married—or to get a mortgage.

LOTS OF LUCK, I said.

[ridesthemiles]

Schools nationwide are under pressure to remove the analog round clocks in schoolrooms because the kids DO NOT know how to tell time with them.

They want to replace all those clocks with digital clocks.

It has to be millions of clocks involved.

[ridesthemiles]

I am typing this on a land line.....

Won’t let go of the land line because I have a Fax machine I still use.

Also- when there is a power outage, I CAN call the electric company and report it.

[ridesthemiles]

MY PARENTS had a crank telephone & that is ALL we had.

[wally_bert]

Both of my jeeps are a tad older and one of them being a 3 cogger isn’t a problem.

The two transfer case levers might perplex a few people.

[central_va]

fake

[Vermont Lt]

Land lines are better if you need 911.

But, if the power goes out, check the street lights. Trust me, if the street lights are out, the power company knows about it. There is no need to bother them.

[KC Burke]

The rotary dial on this thing that I ran during my first two years of college was a "speed dial". It was dialed with a plastic stylus or the cap of a pen. It was fast.

[Figment]

lol