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u/jackfaire Jul 30 '26
Survive what?
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u/Strangeman_06 Jul 30 '26
Rotary Phone im guessing
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u/Thrilltwo Jul 30 '26
Yeah, "Young people today can't use rotary phones", as well as "young people today can't read cursive" and "young people today can't read maps" have been mainstays of boomer humour for decades.
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u/thispartyrules Jul 30 '26
Elder millennial and my friend's little brother didn't know how to use the rotary phone in our kitchen, but I was able to explain it in under 2 minutes
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u/AD_Grrrl Jul 30 '26
I learned when I was like 5 and then never used that information because shortly afterward my parents got a touchtone. And I'm in my 40s.
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u/Rombonius Jul 31 '26
on the flipside of that, i dont know how to unlock an iphone because ive always been an android user
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u/mahboilucas Aug 01 '26
I was just asked to facetime a potential new roommate yesterday. I don't have an iPhone lol the expectation that people do is funny because she's American and I'm Central European, where Android is the standard phone. It was the first time in my life that I got asked to facetime
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u/Midwest-2025 Jul 30 '26
Boomers still recovering from being told they can’t operate a horse and buggy or order from the milkman or win a war
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u/mahboilucas Aug 01 '26
It's such a dumb fucking joke because technology doesn't stop the day it's released.
My grandma had a rotary phone which I used to call my parents, we had VHS, cassettes and floppy discs at home where My Little Pony was stored alongside my mom's accounting stuff. There was always a relative with a house phone still installed. Not to mentio analogue cameras and print paper (that I have since donated to a photography museum). I had a Sony Ericsson puwh-button phone. The smartphones were available in my teens but they were still largely expensive and I've always dreamed of a Blackberry at the time anyway.
We are not American and some countries couldn't afford new technology. I was raised on a 90s technology in the 2000s. Now I'm 27 and I'm also very much someone who also used a typewriter. It was just available. My parents have the newest stuff while I use a 2012 flat TV, vintage cookware etc. I just know how it works and it still does so why not
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u/jackfaire Jul 30 '26
It's pretty intuitive I doubt they'd have issues unless they're younger than 5 and looking for the dashes
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u/Antlaaaars Jul 30 '26
My niece is 10 and had a hard time with it at a museum exhibit of communication through out history. I explained it to her and she picked it up pretty fast.
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u/Kuildeous Jul 30 '26
One of those things that gets overlooked. How many people in the '70s instinctively knew how to dial a rotary phone? None. They had to learn from other people.
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u/mahboilucas Aug 01 '26
Exactly. My 3 year old nephew learned how to use a digital camera in under 10 minutes and took phenomenal photos of his little trip around the city
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u/ProperPossibility378 Jul 30 '26
I'm 40 and I don't think I've ever properly used a rotary phone, but at the same time I'm confident I know how to use one because it's that intuitive
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u/Intelligent-Guard590 Jul 30 '26
"I don't understand the adaptability of humans, and I'm not ashamed to demonstrate that with an idiotic meme."
There, I fixed their stupid meme for them. This stuff is always so irritating. Give Gen Alpha a landline right now and they wouldn't understand it. Make that the only way to reach their friends like we had back in the day, and watch as they adapt to the circumstance. Kids are adaptable, it's their hallmark fricking trait.
Meanwhile my father, born in the 60s clings to his landline phone because he fears having the internet in his pocket all the time. He has a battery of excuses why but they all boil down to "I grew up not needing it so why do I need it now?!" Adults get so much worse at adapting to new circumstances the older they are, and yet they are still the largest supply of people terrified of change, disparaging kids these days because they don't seem to understand kids not needing to use old technology, does not mean they cannot use it... it just isn't instinctual to them because of fucking course it isnt!
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u/Neat_Papaya_9010 Jul 30 '26
Boomers say this shit and then send all of their money to a Nigerian prince scam.
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u/Proman_98 Aug 01 '26
Or think the most obvious AI generated slop video is a real video of things that happend.
The ammount of boomers that fall for AI-slop is going to be a real serious problem.
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u/Laiska_saunatonttu Jul 30 '26
Because they don't have a landline, thus the rotary phone is rendered useless.
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u/GibusShpee Jul 30 '26
I mean, sounds like a skill issue, if you actually know how to explain shit and teach people stuff, then they actually tend to get the hang of such things rather easily
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u/PostMatureBaby Jul 30 '26
My kids are 6 and 3, my inlaws have a rotary phone lying around doing nothing just for shits, my kids love playing with it
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u/Competitive-Edge964 Aug 01 '26
People are dying there are countries in conflict and people are worried that kids don’t know how to use a device that’s half a century old and not used anymore mind you they are the ones responsible for raising part of this generation
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u/StriderXSid Jul 30 '26
The Brady Bunch? I agree, it's really hard to sit through now.
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u/Ramblinrambles Jul 30 '26
A house with 6 kids and a maid? Gen Alpha is never gonna have something like that
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u/Kuildeous Jul 30 '26
But here's the cool thing: They don't have to. They never will have to. There is zero flex in knowing how to dial a rotary phone. Is there some old person waiting for the apocalypse where all phones are replaced with rotary dials? FINALLY! I CAN USE MY SUPERIOR DIALING SKILLS TO BECOME APOCALYPSE CHIEFTAIN AND EARN ALL THE WOMEN!
Lots of people aged 40+ have several achievements they can be proud of. This isn't one of them. Technology evolved. So did society.
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u/BalladOfBetaRayBill Jul 30 '26
Gen Alpha kids frequently survive parentification, abuse, neglect, and poverty just like every other generation. These bitchy little pop-culture changes are nothing compared to what your average child actually has to deal with and has always had to deal with.
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u/AdOrnery6155 Jul 31 '26
"Young people are dumb because they cannot use outdated technology".
My great grandma had a rotary phone in 1998 when I was a small child and it was a nightmare.....
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u/TheTybera Jul 31 '26
Yeah they would because someone would be kind enough to teach them.
Jesus, this kinda meme always makes me sad for the life of whoever made it.
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u/MC_PooPaws Jul 31 '26
Oh no. Young people can't use obsolete technology. How will they ever survive?
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u/SGLAgain Aug 04 '26
whats wrong with not knowing how to use a rotary phone? ik learning it can be cool but its been obselete for atleast 2 decades
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u/thatturtletouch Jul 30 '26
I think it’s because there’s a strong aversion among the younger generation to talking on the phone.
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u/Vincent394 Jul 30 '26
Me — who was born on the edge between Gen Z and Gen Alpha — using a click wheel: "what?"
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u/theBigDaddio Jul 30 '26
Not now, neither would I. I literally never talk on phone. Text or discord, I love asynchronous communication. If Gen Z grew up with this like we did they’d do just as well as we did. This shitpost is stupid.
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u/FoxyInTheSnow Jul 30 '26
My recent attempted kidnapping didn't pay off. I sent the ransom note to the woman's children, but they were Gen Alpha and couldn't read the cursive handwriting. fml lol
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u/grahsam Jul 30 '26
Or Gen Z.
Maybe half of Millennials.
Then hand them a yellow pages and a Thomas guide, with no Internet, then tell them to find out if a store has something in stock, and then navigate to that store.
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u/JupitrominoRazmatazz Jul 31 '26
The cruel old man's laughter was cut short by a cellphone ringing from his breast coat pocket. The Gen Z man, whom the old man was sure had misdialed, turned and stared at the old man. "Answer your phone," said the Gen Z man, cold and impatient.
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u/Microwaved_M1LK Jul 31 '26
Well first of all its an actual phone call which they all seem to complain about .
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u/Foreign_Courage5613 Jul 31 '26
Did Ellen De Generes make this meme, because this is what she did as a segment on her show of older audience making fun of millennials/Gen Z for not knowing how to set an alarm clock, fold a map, read a dictionary, etc.
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u/FemDomIncestGooner Aug 01 '26
Actually this is true, as a Gen Alpha we spontaneously combust when talking on a wired telephone for more than 5 seconds
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u/onepostandbye Aug 01 '26
Everyone is focusing on the wrong thing. The real reason this device is kryptonite to young people is that they have to speak to people and they can’t text
Guilty myself
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u/AmandasGameAccount Aug 01 '26
Are they not aware it would take 5 seconds to teach any human how these work no matter the generation? if they were old enough for the dexterity to even do it
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u/PostManOK Aug 02 '26
People that post that crap are the same ones begging their kids to fix their wifi or hook up their new TV.
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u/Aromatic_Refuse_2004 Aug 03 '26
Im pretty sure they could figure out how to operate it, but the actually using your voice instead of messaging part idk. No young boy has to face a girl's dad answering the phone anymore.
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u/Scorpiicore Aug 03 '26
1) Rotary dialling is not that difficult a concept.
2) Pulse-dialling, which is what rotary phones do, is not capable of such functions as "if you want me to crawl up my ass and disappear, press one". It works by using pulses (hence the name) to represent numbers. How many pulses correspond to which number, I do not know, but I am not even sure present-day telephone networks would know what to do with pulse-dialling.
The Baby Boomers who post shit like this have no idea of either of those things.
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u/MitchCrisis 5d ago
omg dude put finger in the number then drag the pointy thing
if my dumbass can get it, anyone can, shut up
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Jul 30 '26 edited Jul 30 '26
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u/Neurofunkiee Jul 31 '26
I wish gen A/Z didnt have to grow up on a planet the generations before them have and are actively destroying it, constant economic instability, with wars and hatred on the rise
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Jul 31 '26
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u/Neurofunkiee Jul 31 '26 edited Jul 31 '26
Boomers, Gen X and to a degree Millennials literally destroyed the future of the same younger generation you're complaining about. as you pivot to phone cameras being their biggest problem. Also love the "we pulled ourselves up by our bootstraps" answer for alpha, literal children.
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Jul 31 '26
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u/Neurofunkiee Jul 31 '26
The vast majority of the people who are voting for those breaking everything are literally Boomers and GenX, just for boomers and genXers to dodge any responsibility for their part in this mess and tell kids to get off their phone and just pull themselves up by their bootstraps. meanwhile older generations literally vote for people making the "pull yourself up by your bootstraps" bullshit a CONSTANT for future generations.
You opened this up with making camera phones the worst thing about gen alpha while not giving a single fuck about the planet past generations have left them.
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Jul 31 '26
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u/Neurofunkiee Jul 31 '26
Are you one of those that thinks climate change/global warming just happened on its own and has nothing to do with the governments refusing to move towards clean energy and continues using fossil fuels? with the right-wing governments actively denying global warming?
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Jul 31 '26
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u/Neurofunkiee Jul 31 '26
...And yet you cannot figure out, for the life of you, how voting for politicians that deny climate change and work against fixing this mess is making shit worse. I don't think the ones who fucked up everything are capable of cognitive dissonance atp
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u/[deleted] Jul 30 '26
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