Did the Art of Conversation Die with the Landline?

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Are you old enough to remember a world without cell phones or text

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messaging where the only phone you had was attached to a wall in your house?

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Most likely in your kitchen.

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And if you wanted a private conversation, you needed to stretch

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the curly phone cord all the way into the bathroom and shut the door.

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Welcome to episode 80.

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One of this shit works.

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I'm your host, Julie Brown.

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And today we are discussing have all the improvements and phone technology over

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the last four decades actually made us.

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Worse at communicating with each other.

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This episode is sponsored by Nickerson.

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A full service, branding, marketing PR and communications agency

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with team members in Boston.

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Los Angeles.

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Miami and New York city.

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Visit them@nickersoncos.com.

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When I was growing up.

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There are no cell phones.

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And until I was in high school, and caller ID was invented.

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I had absolutely no idea who was going to be on the other end of the line.

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When a phone call came in.

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It could be one of my friends, one of my sister's friends.

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Uh, someone else in my family, a bill collector.

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Publisher's clearinghouse.

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No idea.

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No idea.

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Back then you simply picked up the phone and said hello

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to whoever was on the other end.

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And then you found out who it was in real time.

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On the flip side of that.

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When you wanted to talk to one of your friends, you had to call their

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a house and you had no idea who was going to pick up the phone.

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It could be their parents.

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Could be one of their siblings or it could be the actual friend

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that you called to talk to.

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Because of this.

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We got used to talking with whoever answered the phone.

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We got used to having to talk to other people in order to get to the

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person we actually wanted to speak to.

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As kids, we became comfortable talking to adults or other people in our

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friend's house that we didn't know.

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That doesn't happen anymore.

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Every kid has a cell phone.

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Hell, most families don't even have a landline anymore.

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Each family member has their own cell phone and their own number.

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No more wondering who is calling or who is going to pick up the

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phone when you call your friend.

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No more mystery on the other end of the line.

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I mean.

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We don't even really talk on the phone anymore.

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It's mostly text messaging or voice messages sent via text.

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When was the last time you called someone on their phone and just had a

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good old fashion conversation or hell.

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When was the last time your cell phone rang and you didn't recognize the

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number, but you answered it anyway.

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Woo Savage.

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I'm sure you just hit decline on that.

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Didn't you?

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Yes, you did.

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So.

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Has the cell phone made us less adept at communicating.

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Do we actually spend less time talking to less people because we have cell phones.

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Should they even be called phones since we hardly ever used them as a phone.

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The original definition of the word phone comes from a Greek word,

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meaning distant voice, but we rarely use our voice with cell phones.

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It's emails.

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Texting.

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Sometimes texting someone who is in the same exact fucking roam as us, instead

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of using our own voice to communicate.

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Technology gives us the opportunity to communicate with more and

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different people, but eventually it can create further problems

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in our existing relationships.

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We see it happening around us every day, friends sitting at a table in a

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restaurant and instead of talking to each other, they're lost in their phones.

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Flirting and dating through social media and dating apps instead of

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going out and actually meeting people.

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Our obsession with taking selfies or updating our location anywhere

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we go, instead of noticing the beauty of our surroundings.

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I

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have the advancements in technology helped us shit.

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Yes.

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Do you remember trying to drive places without GPS with handwritten

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directions, like take a left at the house with the red door.

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If you see a house with a statue of a horse out front, you've gone too far.

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Those days sucked.

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But there needs to be a balance in everything we do in, in all the

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ways technology has infiltrated our lives in order to not lose

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the beauty of human interaction.

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We should be able to recognize when we need to take a step back from

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our different forms of electronic communication and focus and invest

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on our real life, friendships and relationships in real time.

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Even if that is just a phone call, a real old fashioned phone call.

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Then we will be able to separate when technology and

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phones are beneficial for us.

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And when they start becoming threatening.

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So maybe, maybe today you just pick up the phone and call somebody.

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Somebody you haven't talked to in awhile, somebody you normally text.

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I will say, I really do love looking for cocktails that go

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with the theme of my episodes.

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And today.

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I have a great one and it's called.

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Call me, honey.

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It was the signature cocktail of the San Antonio cocktail conference

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in 2019, which is one of the country's premier cocktail shindigs.

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I've been to a party or two in San Antonio, and they do know how

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to make a cocktail down there.

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Here's what you're going to need.

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One green cardamom pod.

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Yes.

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I always have cardamom in my house.

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Two ounces of vodka.

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The recipe specifically called for deep Eddy vodka, but I didn't have that.

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So I just used what was on the bar.

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Half ounce of lemon juice, one ounce of orange juice, a half ounce of honey syrup.

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We've made this on previous episodes.

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A lemon wheel for garnish and cinnamon powder for garnish as well.

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What you're going to do is muddle that cardamom pod in a cocktail shaker.

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At remaining ingredients and two ice cubes, shake, shake, shake,

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and then strained into a chilled rocks glass filled with ice.

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What you're going to do then is garnished with that lemon wheel.

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But first, what you're going to do is you're just going to dust that lemon

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wheel with a little bit of cinnamon first.

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Delicious right.

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Okay folks, that's it for today.

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Don't forget to rate, review, subscribe, and all that jazz and

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share this podcast with your friends.

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The ones that you are going to call today and tell them about it on the phone.

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And until next week.