This has to be a joke...

Discussions on Talking Machines & Accessories
OrthoFan
Victor V
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This has to be a joke...

Post by OrthoFan »


frankt
Victor Jr
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Re: This has to be a joke...

Post by frankt »

so obvious that this guy knows nothing about a phonograph from the 70's. ROFLMAO!!!

EdisonSquirrel
Victor II
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Re: This has to be a joke...

Post by EdisonSquirrel »

At first glance it may be surprising or amusing to us that someone who is selling an old stereo is claiming that the machine is 100 years old. Keep in mind that it's very common for young people to be unaware of technologies and artifacts that were commonplace before their time. The seller of this item is most likely a young man or woman in their 20s who wasn't alive when a stereo like this one was found in the average home. If you were to ask a youngster, "Which came first--cylinder records or LPs?", he very well might be unable to give you an answer.

It will get worse as the years go by.

:squirrel: :lol: :squirrel:

Rocky

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Nat
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Re: This has to be a joke...

Post by Nat »

100 years - how time flies!

Seriously though - Rocky is right. I had a bunch of kids here a few days ago, all 17-18 or so, and not one of them had seen a record! Not just an old acoustic - any record.

How time flies!

bbphonoguy
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Re: This has to be a joke...

Post by bbphonoguy »

I know this is funny, but it's also worrisome. If kids are this ignorant about a little thing like this, how uninformed are they about important stuff?

bostonmike1
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Re: This has to be a joke...

Post by bostonmike1 »

bbphonoguy wrote:I know this is funny, but it's also worrisome. If kids are this ignorant about a little thing like this, how uninformed are they about important stuff?
In defense of kids today--especially my own---the fact that they do not know something does not automatically pronounce them as being "IGNORANT" (a very harsh term in my estimation.) When I grew up in the 50's I did not know what a pair of "spats" were but my school scores and S.A.T.s did not deem me to be ignorant by any definition. With the advent of the internet the children of today are far and above more INFORMED than we could ever have hoped to be in our generation, when we were their age. What is most "worrisome" to me is the fact that it has not even been established that that a YOUNGSTER posted the offering----yet we chose to condemn an entire generation because of their supposed ignorance. I do not know one Victrola from another----does that put me in the category of ignorance or in the category of I just do not care? In my opinion, let us stay on the topic of phonographs and leave to the future historians as to whether the kids of today know anything or are just "ignorant". Michael

EdisonSquirrel
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Re: This has to be a joke...

Post by EdisonSquirrel »

We don't know the age of the person who is selling the "100-year-old" stereo. I stated that the seller is "most likely" a younger person, as it would be unusual for an older person like myself to believe that it dates back to the early 1900s.

In a similar vein, if a seller were offering a black and white TV and stated that the TV was probably a rare antique from 1910, I would expect that he/she is a younger person who did not grow up with a black and white TV. I might have a laugh and then stop to realize that much is lost with each passing generation. There is a lot that my parents and grandparents experienced that is totally foreign to me. In addition, many things that we experience on a daily basis and take for granted will be unknown to the next several generations.

When I first started work at my present job, there were no computers, no internet, no direct deposit, no ATMs, no faxes, no voice mail. Yes, the differences in technology made for a world that was radically different that the one we now live in. Yet the real differences between then and now was not so much the technology, but the attitudes and biases of people in general, but that's another story.

Rocky

bostonmike1
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Re: This has to be a joke...

Post by bostonmike1 »

EdisonSquirrel wrote:We don't know the age of the person who is selling the "100-year-old" stereo. I stated that the seller is "most likely" a younger person, as it would be unusual for an older person like myself to believe that it dates back to the early 1900s.

In a similar vein, if a seller were offering a black and white TV and stated that the TV was probably a rare antique from 1910, I would expect that he/she is a younger person who did not grow up with a black and white TV. I might have a laugh and then stop to realize that much is lost with each passing generation. There is a lot that my parents and grandparents experienced that is totally foreign to me. In addition, many things that we experience on a daily basis and take for granted will be unknown to the next several generations.

When I first started work at my present job, there were no computers, no internet, no direct deposit, no ATMs, no faxes, no voice mail. Yes, the differences in technology made for a world that was radically different that the one we now live in. Yet the real differences between then and now was not so much the technology, but the attitudes and biases of people in general, but that's another story.

Rocky
As a person who has a yearning of for learning---what is the other story? Michael

brianu
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Re: This has to be a joke...

Post by brianu »

bostonmike1 wrote:
bbphonoguy wrote:I know this is funny, but it's also worrisome. If kids are this ignorant about a little thing like this, how uninformed are they about important stuff?
In defense of kids today--especially my own---the fact that they do not know something does not automatically pronounce them as being "IGNORANT" (a very harsh term in my estimation.) When I grew up in the 50's I did not know what a pair of "spats" were but my school scores and S.A.T.s did not deem me to be ignorant by any definition. With the advent of the internet the children of today are far and above more INFORMED than we could ever have hoped to be in our generation, when we were their age. What is most "worrisome" to me is the fact that it has not even been established that that a YOUNGSTER posted the offering----yet we chose to condemn an entire generation because of their supposed ignorance. I do not know one Victrola from another----does that put me in the category of ignorance or in the category of I just do not care? In my opinion, let us stay on the topic of phonographs and leave to the future historians as to whether the kids of today know anything or are just "ignorant". Michael
why take these comments so personally?

beyond that, the fact that a person lacks knowledge of a certain subject indeed makes him/her ignorant of it... ignorant, not as in rude or overall dim or stupid in general, but simply unknowing, unknowledgeable, unaware, etc., of a specific subject or topic... and I can't quite see how a person could infer from these posts that anyone here is condemning an entire generation based on its ignorance. on the contrary, I would definitely agree with you that younger people these days are becoming increasingly well informed and aware of the world around them... and are increasingly adept in the area of computers and technology, for one - something of which I'll readily admit to being somewhat IGNORANT, and I'm only in my 30's (I certainly annoy the IT guy at work with my (to him) lame questions often enough). and I was certainly ignorant of the term "spats" until I googled it just now.

and if you don't know one victrola from another, that definitely would connote a degree of ignorance about the subject (though NOT by any stretch about the person in general). but if in addition you simply don't care about the subject, with all due respect, then that presses the question as to why you'd bother even following threads such as these, particularly when you're advising people to stay on the topic of phonographs.

OrthoFan
Victor V
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Re: This has to be a joke...

Post by OrthoFan »

bostonmike1 wrote:
bbphonoguy wrote:I know this is funny, but it's also worrisome. If kids are this ignorant about a little thing like this, how uninformed are they about important stuff?
In defense of kids today--especially my own---the fact that they do not know something does not automatically pronounce them as being "IGNORANT" (a very harsh term in my estimation.) When I grew up in the 50's I did not know what a pair of "spats" were but my school scores and S.A.T.s did not deem me to be ignorant by any definition. With the advent of the internet the children of today are far and above more INFORMED than we could ever have hoped to be in our generation,when we were their age. What is most "worrisome" to me is the fact that it has not even been established that that a YOUNGSTER posted the offering----yet we chose to condemn an entire generation because of their supposed ignorance. I do not know one Victrola from another----does that put me in the category of ignorance or in the category of I just do not care? In my opinion, let us stay on the topic of phonographs and leave to the future historians as to whether the kids of today know anything or are just "ignorant". Michael
Hi Michael:

Unless the meaning has changed greatly, the word "ignorant" is in no way, shape or form a pejorative or put down. According to Websters, etc., the basic definition is:

"The condition of being uneducated, unaware, or uninformed...."

I'd say that to say that the seller of this circa 1970s stereo--young or old--is ignorant about the history of audio equipment, is a statement of fact. Along this line, this person displays no awareness of the history of electronics, radio, plastics, or furniture construction. I'm NOT saying the person is stupid, just uneducated.

This point was hammered in by my third grade teacher, who actually had a sampler pinned on the wall above her desk -- "The cure for ignorance is education."

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