Lamenting the Demise of Hangups

An anonymous reader writes "Ian Bogost writes about a cultural tradition we've mostly lost as smartphones have become ubiquitous: hanging up. While we still use the terminology (in the same way we say 'rewind' when skipping backward on our DVR), the physical act of hanging up a telephone when we're done using it no longer occurs. And we don't get that satisfying crash and clatter when hanging up on somebody to make a point. 'In the context of such gravity, the hangup had a clear and forceful meaning. It offered a way of ending a conversation prematurely, sternly, aggressively. Without saying anything, the hangup said something: we're done, go away. ... Today a true hangup — one you really meant to perform out of anger or frustration or exhaustion — is only temporary and one-sided even when it is successfully executed. Even during a heated exchange, your interlocutor will first assume something went wrong in the network, and you could easily pretend such a thing was true later if you wanted. Calls aren't ever really under our control anymore, they "drop" intransitively.' It's an interesting point about the minor cultural changes that go along with evolving technology."

Comments

They beauty of smart phones

[dmomo]

Make an aggressive hang-up app.

Re:They beauty of smart phones

[dmomo]

And of course, dmomo's law rings true once more:
"The Internet already did your idea":
http://www.appbrain.com/app/the-cell-slammer/The.Slammer

Re:They beauty of smart phones

[nametaken]

I don't remember aggressive hang-ups being audibly distrubing. Maybe it's because you had hammered the switch down before the crashing noise.

The real problem is that mobile phone calls disconnect all the time, and for a number of reasons. So terminating a call prematurely isn't always a definitive, "fuck you, you've been hung up on."

Re:They beauty of smart phones

[mcgrew]

Hanging up on someone was as rude as telling them to go fuck themselves. Anyone who misses hanging up on someone has something wrong with them.

We've traded hanging up on someone with the even ruder talking on the phone when you're conversing with someone face to face. When the phone rang, the polite thing to do was answer it, say you had company and offer to call back. Now assholes just ignore you and gab on their phone. Didn't you kids have parents that taught you how to act like a human being?

Don't get me started on musical ring tones, sometimes I feel like walking into next cube over and smashing their goddamned cell phone. Whoever came up with the idea should be tied to a chair and made to listen to the first fifteen notes of the song they hate worst, over and over.

Re:They beauty of smart phones

[Anonymous Coward]

Just send a followup text message with the goatse image attached and the quote "this is what your mama ate last night!" That will get the message across, while also permanently psychologically scarring the individual and preventing them for ever again displaying affection to their mother--you know, what you really want in the moment of anger during a hangup.

Re:They beauty of smart phones

[theskipper]

Slight variation, I sent the goatse text to myself after having an angry conversation with my mom. I feel much better now.

Re:They beauty of smart phones

[ultranova]

The real problem is that mobile phone calls disconnect all the time, and for a number of reasons. So terminating a call prematurely isn't always a definitive, "fuck you, you've been hung up on."

This problem is easy to solve:simply say "fuck you" before disconnecting.

Lame

[Anonymous Coward]

This is really just an updated version of Seinfeld's cordless phone bit

Even by the standards of crappy Soulskill posts...

[Nova Express]

...this is a crappy Soulskill post.

Even for a slow Saturday night.

Couldn't you find another Apple linkbait troll piece to post instead? You know, "Rumor Says New OS X Release Locked to Processor." You know, the lame crap that gets posted here every day which is still better than this...

No app necessary.

[Anonymous Coward]

Preface disconnecting with the following: "This is me hanging up on you".

Re:No app necessary.

[TapeCutter]

"Fuck off" also works well.

Forget the hangup.... I'm missing

[Spy Handler]

the full duplex, circuit-switched, not-laggy realtime conversations I used to have on a landline phone. I could be talking, and the other party could be talking at the same time, and both of us could hear each other and understand everything.

The young uns here will probably think I'm making this up. I'm not; back in the day, Candace Bergen could drop a pin and I could hear it over the phone.

Re:Forget the hangup.... I'm missing

[slimjim8094]

To be honest I don't recall ever having a dropped landline call since 9/11 (northeast NJ so it's understandable that the network was properly overloaded)

Say what you want about the Bell monopoly (and its Baby Bells) - they sure knew how to engineer a damn solid network.

Re:Forget the hangup.... I'm missing

[romiz]

they sure knew how to engineer a damn solid network.

That's what regulated, cost-oriented prices in a monopoly do. Gold plate everything, spare no expense in the research of perfection, and earn a fixed percentage on it. Nowadays, we spend money on advertisement instead, because it's much more efficient at recruiting clients than quality in a competitive market.

Re:Forget the hangup.... I'm missing

[Antique Geekmeister]

I'm sure mean "when you had AT&T since the breakup of their monopoly", not "AT&T back when they provided analog phones and had the US telephone monopoly".

Earlier in my electrical engineering experience, I actually reconnected 50 and 60 year old phones in old houses to active, analog, land-line circuits from almost any decade between 1920 and 1980, and it _all worked_, including the older phones that were wired directly to wiring jacks inside of wall plates, and lacked modern RJ-11 wiring connectors. (The 1900 era phone took some extra work.) Many, if not most, of those old phones frankly had better sound quality than the modern consumer grade phones. And because the entire setup was analog, they filtered but still carried some small amount of higher frequency signals that modern digital phones _cannot_ carry, particularly useful for sharp sounds that digital analysis and remixing smear. A "bang" or "clatter" including that of hanging up the phone, was much more clear.

There are some very real advantages of modern digital systems, such as more reliable transmission over long distances and easier central switching without mechanical relays. But the robustness of the equipment and overall quality of the equipment that AT&T was providing for consumer use was not one of the problems of older phones.

Uh... you can still hang up on someone...

[drcagn]

If you want to hang up on someone and deliver the same experience, just shout "fuck you!" and tap the "end call" button. You get the same satisfaction and they'll get the message. Is that so hard?

I miss the hang up...

[lxs]

...about as much as I miss putting a new roll in the fax machine. i.e. not at all.
But then again I bet if you look hard enough you'll find an old fart who thinks that VHS tapes are superior to Bluray.

And before the phone?

[Dog-Cow]

Before we had the phone, there was no way to hangup at all! Let's lament the lack of smacking someone on the face and stalking off!

Why would you want to keep them?

[rssrss]

It took me years of psychotherapy to get rid of my hangups. Why would I be sad about their demise?