Actually, remembering how it was I realize it seems kind of alien to me too now. I wonder how we ever managed the inconvenience of it all. But then I also remember how nice it was before you were expected to be so accessible. You never had to answer the phone, because you always had an excuse for not answering: "I wasn't home."
I still manage to not answer the phone, though, thanks to Caller ID :) Yay! That's been a huge change for me. Before that, I used to dread picking up the phone until I knew who it was. The whole thing of feeling old when technology changes - I know what you mean. I feel old anyway, regardless, but it does feel strange to have witnessed society changing so drastically. But maybe the changes tend to fade into the background after a while. I once asked my grandmother what it had been like to live through all the many changes she'd seen over her lifetime (she died aged 99) and her answer was the equivalent of "Meh!" She'd experienced the introduction of electricity, home phones, cars, planes, space travel, television, mobile phones, computers, and then the introduction of the internet age, and it was like she hadn't really noticed any of it as being unusual. Maybe that was just her, though.
Anyway. It's pretty liberating. This is my family's cottage, and I am considering just making a 'no contact' rule next time I go. We are social animals, but even social animals need alone time.