I bought something the other day and quickly realized not too many people would make the same purchase any longer.
I still have literally dozens of these.
Most people don’t wear one nowadays or so I thought.
The vintage time piece — a watch!
According to new research by Watch Ranker: “There’s a myth millennials don’t buy old fashioned watches. Over 52 percent own at least one and 18 percent have more than one analog watch”.
Am I the only one who remembers the slogan of Timex? “It takes a lickin’ and keeps on tickin’” as quoted by John Cameron Swayze. (random trivia stuck in my brain)
Watches were once a bit of a status symbol. If you could afford a Rolex you were wealthy.
The anticipated retirement gift was a gold watch — a sign of prestige and a job well done.
I digress.
As I admired my inexpensive new watch I realized not many people wear them anymore. People use their phones to check the time.
I think its become the same way with calendars or day planners. Most people just keep track of appointments in their phones.
That lead me to think about how we use things now in such different ways. Especially phones. We rarely use them for actual verbal communication these days. Our phones are more likely used as cameras.
That’s way more handy than trying to rip an old version out of the wall and try to snap a pic.
I used to depend on office receptionists to remind me of upcoming meetings or medical appointments but now that’s left to a disembodied voice named Siri.
We don’t even really watch television in the same ways. Its certainly not like in decades past when we only had the chance to watch our favourite shows the actual night it aired.
Remember the weekly paper TV Guide magazine? Live tv, as we used to call it, is pretty rare. It's all about PVR’ing so we can choose our viewing times plus skip commercials (which is a bonus). Never would I have imagined being able to rewind or fast forward or pause a program as it airs.
As a kid it was a bit of a game to race to the bathroom, grab a pop and a snack and get back to the couch before the show started again. (believe me the commercial breaks were not as long back in the day)
Perhaps the more literary among us still buy books in a store. Again, it seems like more readers are downloading them onto their gadgets or purchasing an audio book. It is convenient but I prefer the weight, feel and smell of a hardcover. Old school.
I never really even progressed to paperbacks. It just wasn’t the same. Perhaps that’s why my book shelves are all buckling.
What about shopping habits? Those have changed dramatically.
For better or worse I haven’t stepped foot in an actual shopping mall for a couple of years. I know they have modernized and are trying to keep pace with big box stores but it's just not my preference.
While I do mostly shop, in person, the majority must be doing online purchases.
That’s been happening for a very long time but COVID definitely lead more of us to try door delivery services for everything from meals to clothes to pet food.
I often wonder if our ancestors came back for a visit what they would feel?
Astounded? Confused? Excited? Disappointed? Disgusted? Maybe, all of the above.
Don’t even get me started on artificial intelligence or self-driving cars!
Still, what goes around comes around. Some things will return.
In the meantime. if you need a watch, wall calendar, landline phone or a non-smart tv?
Call me — on my phone plugged into my wall!
Wendy King is a columnist for BarrieToday.
