It’s not often I find myself in agreement with conservatives but when the Scottish conservative Ruth Davidson expresses concern about the fact that gambling logos can appear more than 700 times in a single football match I fully understand what she is worried about. She describes the gambling industry’s relationship with football as a “parasite that’s taking over the host”. Even if you ban actual gambling advertising during televised matches, the adverts are still there all around the pitch and on lots of teams strips.
It’s not just football, of course. Watching stuff on Netflix or More 4, I am always amazed at the the amount of advertising for gambling of one kind or another. And the addition of little warnings to always gamble responsibly, to know your limits, indeed to set limits seems to me to be really less than useless. Just as printing “smoking kills” on cigarette packets won’t stop a determined smoker, advice to gamble responsibly won’t really stop a determined gambler. It’s another addiction!
I think the gambling advert that annoys me the most is the one for bingo. I had never really thought of bingo as gambling. For me it was a game I organised in high school modern foreign language classes as another amusing way of practising number recognition. Then it was night out for a certain class of slightly older ladies - an evening at the bingo hall with their friends. Not my idea of a fun night out but there you go! When I heard of younger people going out to play bingo I was mystified - surely younger people had better things to do with their time. Even so, I could understand people going out to play bingo in the company of their friends, sometimes winning decent prizes, but the idea of sitting in your home alone playing bingo on your computer or on your phone defeats me completely. There must be a better way to spend your time!
Okay, that’s another rant over and done with.
Watching TV series or films set in the 1960s and 1970s, it now strikes me as odd not to see people carrying mobile phones around with them. Not only do we almost all carry our mobiles with us at all times but many people carry them in a clearly visible manner. Mine comes out quite frequently to take photos. I like to document where I have been and what I have been doing. But mostly it stays in my pocket. I notice that some people, rather a lot of people, simply have to have their phone in their hand all the time and many of them have to have a conversation going on all the time. And some obviously use it to listen to music or podcasts as they are out and about. Which brings me to another bugbear: the difficulty some people have in just quietly enjoying a walk.
Back in the day, when we had Walkmans (Walkmen?) instead of iPods, did the majority of people listen to them almost all the time as they walked down country lanes and along bridle paths? I don’t seem to remember them being quite so ubiquitous. However, I may be seeing the past through dusty spectacles.
Anyway, Hadley Freeman has been writing today about watching “Back to the Future” with her offspring.
“My children, naturally, lovedMarty McFly (they didn’t fall that far from the tree), “ she wrote, “ and they grasped the concept of time travel. But something else threw them. It’s in the scene when Marty’s in the diner in 1955 ... what is that weird box he’s walking into?
“That’s a phone box. It’s what people used to make calls in before they had mobiles,” I said. They stared at me, as if I spoke of a time before people had oxygen (which doesn’t say great things about how much they see me with my phone, but let’s ignore that). It got worse: what is that book Marty’s looking in?
“That’s a phone book. It’s how people found out other people’s numbers,” I said, suddenly understanding how my grandfather felt that time he told me about growing up without indoor plumbing.”
Exactly! As she points out, things have changed quite radically in recent years:
“Now, let’s take this apart. Back To The Future is about a teenager who travels back in time 30 years. Sure, people in 1955 don’t know about diet sodas, or padded jackets, or reruns, and Chuck berry songs don’t exist yet. But, overall, the world in 1955 is recognisable to a kid from 1985. He knows what a phone box and phone book are, for a start.
To kids born in 2015, however, as my twins were, both worlds are completely baffling. Why look up someone’s phone number in a book instead of on the phone itself? (Thank heavens Marty didn’t then use a phone card, surely the most baffling phone-accessory-from-the-past of all.)”
And I find myself wondering how many young Doctor Who fans have any idea what the police phone box that he travels around in!
Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!
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