Folks Of Interest Resisting Change

I enjoy going to my mailbox 6 days a week on my front porch while looking over to see my American flag waving in the wind. Then looking the other way seeing my small 70`s windmill spinning in the wind as well. There`s an old home made A frame swing set in the yard as well.

 

NOT "right in the mix."

A lot of people truly think that everything new is better. And everything old sucks.

We know better.

We're actually forced to use computers right now. Can't get through life without 'em. But I'm pretty sure there's going to come a time when knowing how to use an axe and a shortwave radio might be way better than having tech skills.

I know! Just like @Wanderlust I'm filled to the brim with warmth and happiness!

 

They are back on the market.

 

I have to have carburated engines with points. I still have a landline but also have a smart phone for coms when I'm out and about and for medical apps.
No one ever figured out how to hook up a small tv to a typewriter so I have a laptop.
My wife and I had the same furniture for 25 years and it was still in great shape when we gave it away and then I traded her in...
I watch retro tv shows.
I prefer 8 packs of glass bottled sodas to 12 pack cans.

 

You guys would get along real with my 95 year old mom.

It's funny, I am 75 and am on FB because I can stay in touch with most of my still living cousins and their kids. It started out with 24 of us and now we are down to about 20.
I have a cell phone that does far more than my first laptop ever thought about and it is on all the time and close because I have to keep track of my 95 year old mom who still lives alone. It's a tool and just as the Snap-On wrenches in my tool box are better than the Harbor Freight tools are I feel that I need that tool to be better than what a cheap tool might be.
Some of my cars have points and some don't even have a distributor but I always figure that those who brag about running points the loudest and look down their high and mighty noses over it absolutely do not put many miles on a car in a years time. What's high mileage for the braggers per year? 3 K a year maybe with one possibly 500 mile road trip a year? I did a lot of tuneups for a living over the years and quite often on the same cars every 10K because the then pretty damned good points were shot.
No I will never put a seat that has built in seat belts in my 48 or another if I ever do one rod or custom. On the other hand I probably won't run bias tires because there is no way I can afford a thousand dollar set of tires every 15 to 20K and if you actually drive your cars real miles rather than just a mile down to the coffee gathering and a mile back you replace those tires every 15 to 20 K . Most of the events I go to are 60 to 250 miles away and I don't belong to a coffee club.

 

It's not linear. It's not about "forwards" and "backwards." There is an infinite number of possible directions, an infinite number of possible technological trajectories. When I oppose this technological trajectory, it's not least because it precludes that technological trajectory. It's not only about the good stuff that gets abandoned; it's just as much about the other cool new stuff we don't get to have. The original Luddites of c.1810 weren't only opposed to new weaving machinery developed specifically to precipitate a change from an independent-small-producer-based textile industry to one based on mass employment of (recently abundant) cheap wage labour by a wealthy outgrowth of the hereditary aristocracy. They were also pissed off that all that effort didn't result in accessible improved machinery of a kind which would have made the conduct of their own trade easier, faster, and safer, thereby improving rather than threatening their economic security.

Hence my username.

It's not about opposing change as such: the word on its own is pretty much meaningless unless you distinguish between improvement and deterioration and then qualify what you mean by that. The myth of an inevitable, sovereign, self-driven "march of progress" is pervasive and deceptive: we need to ditch it.

For the record, I was a late adopter of the mobile phone, and I use it only for calls and messages. I'm on my wife's laptop now, because I'm not home; otherwise I prefer a desktop computer. In cars, I've never owned EFI, a catalytic converter, air conditioning, power windows, power steering, a touch screen, or a supplementary-restraint airbag; nor have I plans to, ever.

 

lol at using the internet to protest technological progress

 

This! I have a Rand-McNally in each car, the garage and office.

Ben

 

Yep kind of funny... right now.
But I won't laugh after the computers don't work anymore and you have to use pencil and paper.
And you don't know how to write cursive.
And you can't even find pencil and paper.
And you have to use a piece of charcoal to write on a rock.
No Uber Eats.

 

See, I really don't get this. I love old cars and I keep my old car, old. My house was built in 1940 and I'm getting ready to refinish the old wood floors. I did finally get around to replacing my outlets with ground plug outlets. Have you ever drove or rode in a Tesla in Ludicrous mode?

I love when I get on my car and it makes all kinds of noise and raises up BUT 0-60 in 3 seconds while not making any fuss or noise was cool as all get out also. Car remains stable, no loud noises, you are just absolutely pinned in your seat.

Craigslist is dead. Local Bulletin Board advertisers are dying. I sell and buy lots of stuff off Facebook. In the future it will likely be something different but Facebook is where many things are listed today.

I was looking to see what was listed there yesterday and up popped an ad from a local venue noting Steve Earle will be there in July. Out came the credit card and I had third row seats in a matter of minutes. Within seconds, there were the tickets in my email. No driving to the mall, no waiting in line.

It's kinda ironic discussing this on our computers and cell phones. I'm not the first to new technology but when it benefits me, I'll use it.

One can like and enjoy both IMO.

 

I see it as a culture problem, not simply a new vs old problem.

The unfortunate part is “new” stuff could be great, if todays culture wanted it to be.

“old” stuff was designed with intent to last forever (and repaired if it didnt) but with materials that WE have been fortunate to last 50-100 years in perfect conditions. But it’s all they had, so it’s what they used.

New stuff is designed with the intent to be thrown away after 1-10 years of use (not repairable even if you want to) with materials that will take 1000 years to degrade in a landfill, with no consideration for that environmental impact.


I’d love to walk into a Ford dealership, buy a 2022 model A sedan with todays gasket and seal designs, with sufficient heat, some safety features, intelligent braking and 4wd for my kids sake. But still be able to replace a head gasket with hand tools in an hour.. is that so much to ask?

What I don’t want to do is walk into that same dealership and have to buy an electric version 50% more expensive than the gasoline version, with a battery that will last 10 years (typically drive 100,000 miles in that time) cost more than 100% of the depreciated value at that time to replace. Oh and by the way, you’ll have to do it again in the time it takes most people to drive another 100,000 miles…and again….

 

When they worked on my heart, I let them use the new tools.

 

I read a print newspaper and watch MASH and Andy Griffith on over the air TV. I live in a rural area where we do business with a handshake. I use a Golden Jubilee Ford tractor for the farm chores.

 

This is one of the main reasons I hang out here...my kind of folks. Still have points in all my old cars, write checks and mail them at the post office for bills, don’t need Fakebook or Instachat, and just plain like old stuff...

 

Absolutely, many here owe their lives or mobility to modern medicine...

 

A time and place for everything

Pancakes are ready!
How do you like your eggs?

 

I beat my drum to a different beat. Just because everybody else is doing something doesn`t mean I have to do the same. Maybe being left-handed in a right-handed designed world has something to do with it. I don`t have a single app on my trac phone and I have never sent a text in my life. My life is full of activity and my business is booming.

 

Speaking of the invention of the wheel, Fred Flintstone pioneered the original "Stones"

 

I drive a '39 p/u with a flathead and have a '54 Ranch Wagon project with a 302 and a carb and points. But my wife drives an OT Volt which works perfectly for her. And while I do buy parts on line my first go to is the local parts store. Even for parts I can get for a little less on line or at a big box store. I still try to buy with cash and seal the deal with a handshake. My word is worth everything. I recently made a deal to sell a flathead oil pan to a member who lives 300 miles or so north of me. No money has changed hands. Just told the guy it was his. And I'll take with me when I'll be up that way in September. He can pay me then in cash when he meets me to pick it up.

 

I recently sold a bunch of vintage stuff at a flea market. Several customers did not have enough cash to buy the items they wanted, one person asked if I took etransfer. I said when I have to take etransfer I will quit.

 

Has everyone seen that video from 4 or so years ago - - a woman gives two college guys a long distance phone number and has them call it on a dial phone. Hilarious! They have no idea what or how or anything. This is where we're headed, like it or not.

 

LOL.. Me too.

Ben

 

Miss Slide Rule Engineering
Hate television. It steals my time.
H.A.M.B. is IT for being on line ( got here through Fordbarn )
Carry a flip phone ( she makes me )
Always have a pen or pencil handy.
Love books.
Miss Earl Scheib

 

Modern tech is what you make of it. Like was said, the older platforms like Craigslist are dead or dying, so to buy or sell you have to go where the business is. Used to be able to go to the store and pick up an Auto trader or other book and find cars and parts, print is basically dead now, so where do you go now? You have to go where everything is. I have a FB account, have only about 20 friends, half of them are family, the other half are car guys I know. I spend more time on marketplace looking for stuff I don't need but want than I do on FB. I love my home PC, tolerate my smart phone, but hate computer ran vehicles, go figure.

Tech is like a tool in a tool box, it's no good unless you know how to use it and need it, and you need it every day now. You don't have to like it, but in a lot of cases you have to use it because the other choices are dying off and slipping away.

 

I use zero technology
I don’t even visit here.
I use old fashion telepathy and the power of suggestion.

 

Have an old red dial phone that hangs on the wall in my garage. It rang one day when my son and some of his friends were in my garage and they were asking me how it worked when you wanted to call someone on it. Was told by a cousin who would use Facebook to contact family members about get togethers if I didn't use facebook he wouldn't be inviting me to any family functions. It's been ten years since I've seen him after I told him what he could do with the sausage and handful of chips that I usually consume at these boring bragfest family get togethers.

 

I have a twenty year old flip phone that I understand I am going to have to give up or trade for another flip phone by the end of the year because the one I have has 3 G's or something? Would not do Faceplant on a bet. The dimmer switch belongs on the floor next to the clutch pedal and the headlight switch belongs on the dash not the steering column. I still read the local newspaper daily and I drink my coffee black, thank you. Okay, I admit I am a dinosaur.
Have a nice day.