NEWCASTLE, NSW: A 67-year-old Wallsend man has taken to Facebook at 6:42am this morning to inform his 214 friends that he has fully resisted the digital age, in a post that has since received 31 likes and a laughing emoji he has interpreted as support.
Gary Pruett, a retired fitter and turner, wrote that he still owns every vinyl record and CD he purchased between 1974 and 1989, all in perfect condition, and that he would never get rid of them. He then added that he still owns a VCR, followed by “Life is good!!” and, two lines later, “Not too shabby!!”
Eleven minutes later, Mr Pruett returned to the post to add an edit clarifying that his phone is a Nokia, not a smart phone, and that he would have included photos of the collection but there was no option to do so. He went on to explain that he uses a desktop computer for all his internet use. The edit closed with “Life is good!!” and “Not too shabby!!” again, in that order.
A second edit followed at 8:15am, after several commenters mentioned their own record collections. In it, Mr Pruett noted that people are always quick to try and outdo you on your post and tell you what they have, but that he was not interested in anyone else’s thoughts, only his own. “Life is good!!” he added.
The desktop, a 2011 Dell Inspiron tower, sits in the spare room beside the VCR, which has not been plugged in since 2008 and is currently supporting a stack of Readers Digest Condensed Books.
Speaking to reporters via Facebook Messenger, Mr Pruett said young people were addicted to screens. He was online at the time.
At press time, Mr Pruett had replied to all 31 likers individually, each reply ending in “Not too shabby!!”, and was drafting a follow-up post asking whether anyone knew how to get the photos off his Nokia, which he described as “a camera phone.”
