Out with the Old

"You're still using that old thing......?"
"Well, yes, actually, I am. You see it works just fine."
"You need a flat screen."
"I do? Why?"
"Well, it's......er, flat."
"Oh. Does it work any better?"
"Well, no. But it's flat."
"Ah, I see - just flat?"
"You'll have more room on your desk."
"But I don't need any. It gets cluttered up enough as it is."
"Well, everyone has one nowadays."
And that seems to be the prevailing argument of the day - everyone has one.
My monitor is, I admit, a bit on the cumbersome side but it's served me well for many years and it would be churlish to cast it aside for no better reason than that everyone has a flat screen nowadays. It's not a true statement any way - I don't.
With advancing years I suppose one gets a bit touchy about this casting aside of old things simply because some advertising campaign tells you to.
One of my cellphones gets derisive looks when I produce it in London, where mobile phones seem to be a fashion statement. It does appear to be steam driven but it works fine for its intended purpose - that of making phone calls. I had to buy it secondhand to avoid having all the other nonsense foisted upon me but I never anticipated the pitying looks I would receive.
Had I lived a few million years ago I expect it would have been the same story.
"Can you believe it? Old OP riding around on that ancient Diplodocus. Doesn't he know that the Stegosaurus is all the rage now?"
And they would go back to their caves and chuckle over my lack of fashion consciousness.
So, until my monitor goes to that graveyard in the sky, I'll stick with it. Then I'll have to buy a flat screen, I suppose.
Unless anyone has an old monitor they want get rid of. There must be plenty of them about.