On Tuesday, July 1, 2014 11:50:50 AM UTC-4, Stephen Sprunk wrote:   
   >  Younger folks are also a lot more exploratory when they encounter a new   
   gadget, whereas older ones tend to expect formal training or manuals because   
   they are afraid of "breaking" something.    
      
   True.  When direct-distance-dialing came out (1966) my parents were afraid to   
   use it, and insisted on placing their LD calls with the operator, as before.    
   From their point of view, they were entering a world never before accessed by   
   consumers--able to    
   dial anywhere in the whole country, so as you said, there was some fear of   
   "breakign something".  Also, they were afraid of making and being billed for a   
   wrong number, though the phoneco always gave credit for those.   
      
   Eventually they learned how to use it.  I observed that after rates were   
   heavilly discounted on weekends (1971) they ceased writing social letters and   
   postcards and made longer social phone calls.  My mother particularly liked   
   5c/minute Sundays.  At some    
   point, perhaps in the 1990s, it became cheaper to telephone someone instead of   
   mailing a letter, thanks to the continuing decline in toll rates and increase   
   in postal rates.  The samething happened in the 1950s, when telegraph rates   
   kept going up while    
   toll rates declined.   
      
   The phoneco's marketing departments were pushing businesses to telephone   
   instead of write, especially after discounted outward lines became available.   
      
      
      
   > Indeed; those phones were pretty simple once you grasped the concept of a   
   phone with multiple lines available--something that few if any homes had at   
   the time.    
      
   One did have to learn how to use the HOLD button.  Also, many business phones   
   had dial intercoms which had varied functions.  Some, for instance, connected   
   to a building PA system.  Some intercoms were manual and the push buttons may   
   have had varying    
   signals, ie, a single buzz meant one thing while a double buzz meant something   
   else.   
      
   In old movies the executives always had an intercom box on their desk, but I   
   never saw such a device--everyone always used the features of a six button key   
   set.  It was usually the last button on the right, marked ICM or INT.  There   
   was usually a little    
   slip taped to the phone wtih the intercom numbers.   
      
   Some Call Director sets may have had special features--they had keys of green   
   and some other colors, but I don't know what they did.   
      
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