Blathr Wayne Lorentz

What is Blathr?

One ringy dingy…

Tuesday, May 24th, 2022 Alive 18,655 days

A woebegone payphone

I found a pay phone!

Using a pay phone requires three things that are increasingly scarce:

  1. A public payphone
  2. Coins
  3. Knowing the number of someone to call

There are still lots of payphones in the world, but theyʼre generally not on the streets where they can be easily noticed. Coins are so scarce that even banks have a hard time getting them. And while it used to be the case that most people knew a dozen or two phone numbers by heart, today they use a gadget to remember for them.

I understand why these things happen, but it seems like there should still be some kind of “infrastructure of last resort” for emergencies, misfortune, and those on the margins of society. New technology is great, but it still breaks too easily for us to rely on it enough in many situations.

❖ ❖ ❖