We had one of these in the basement at my childhood house in the 90's. I may be the very tail end of people who un-ironically dialed with a rotary dial.
this post was submitted on 06 Apr 2026
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phone bad
That's how all addiction works.
Also my husband who's a therapist sends this meme to his patients with the note, "this is your depression," which doesn't always go over well at first, but he does show them how to step out of the cage, and then they finally see the humor. If they haven't fired him.
Depression is like that. I have it and the image is an apt comparison.
I'm 34 and this is deep
We were not. They're trying to sell us the nostalgia. Resist!
c/Im14andthisisdeep
Ok boomer
You didn't own the phone. You had to rent it from Ma Bell, you had no choice.
As opposed to renting the service, and paying for the cost of the phone as well?
So you agree that humans were not free then, contrary to what the podium in the image claims? Congratulations, we agree.
As opposed to being able to use any phone, in any style or color, you wanted. More importantly though, in practice it also meant that the phone company could control who could make phones.
When my grandma died, she still had the phone that Southwestern Bell had to let her keep when that became not a thing anymore (Shortly after the breakup IIRC). It was beige and looked a lot like the one photo except it had touch tone buttons.
People are downvoting you, but it's true. At least in some places the telephone was property of the phone company (kind of like cable-tv boxes are now) and you were just renting it. Source: https://www.britannica.com/one-good-fact/what-household-item-was-primarily-rented-rather-than-sold-until-the-80s edit with more info: https://historyfacts.com/science-industry/fact/people-rented-their-phones/
One of my first jobs was tech support in a library. Some of the older librarians remembered back when telephones were first introduced to the building; they said some people were worried that folks would spend all their time chatting on the phones instead of working!
When the phone has a chord
And for hours you hoard
That's amore
How is this the exact same phone in my grandparents house when I was growing up?
That phone was in everyone’s house for a few decades.