The News From Poughkeepsie - Day 18

May 9th, 2008 • Related • Filed Under

I wonder why technology has evolved the way it has - and then it struck me. What if we advanced just as we have today, but we still kept a great deal of the everyday habits of yesterday? What really hit me was the Andy Griffith Show, where in Mayberry each phone in the town was connected to Sarah, the faceless, voiceless operator. Pick up the phone and talk to Sarah and ask her to connect you with someone else. Ask after her family. Tell her about Opie’s fall from the treehouse - he’s all right, thank you for asking, bless your heart.

What if we kept Sarah while at the same time we advanced everything else?

“Sarah, can you connect me to Google? … No, not Gmail, just the search engine. Thanks. … Yeah, I want to look for ‘black cock.’ … Now Sarah, don’t talk like that. I’m looking for pictures of chickens for an art project.* … Yeah, keep safe searching on. Thanks!”

“Sarah, I need to check my email, will you log me on? Thank you. Yes, I was surprised to hear from my sister after she posted that about me on my blog. I’m actually looking to see if she’s responded. No? All right, thank you, Sarah. You tell your mama I’m looking forward to the church social and I hope she brings her famous apple pie!”

Sarah - World Wide Web with Small Town Sensibilities

*This happened to an artist friend of mine. one of my favorite Google search stories. I’ve also heard searching for “manhole” when doing research on city streets is a dangerous move.

The News From Poughkeepsie is a daily blog post featuring an idea for you to take and do with what you will. Read more about it here. This post is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license. You can take this idea, change it, make something new, and even make money off of it. All I ask is if you create something - anything! - that this post inspired you to make, please link back here.

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  1. Comment by Merrill on 9 May 2008:

    I did have a phone without even a round dial on it. We didn’t chat with the operators. They were quite professional. On the other hand, there is a cell phone phone with only a button or two. You press the button and get a live person who can look up the number of anyone and connect you. I want to talk with my sister. If your address book has “my sister” in it, the call goes through immediately. I think the operators may queery a bit to determine that “my sister” is Mary Lou. Good for people who can’t dial cell phones, old, young and in-between. The Pink Tornado would be armed and ready to take on the world.

  2. Pingback by town of poughkeepsie on 21 May 2008:

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