Home » News & Events » Call a Boomer Payphone Connects Students to Seniors
by Camille Bugayong for BU Today
When Maria Jaynes picks up the phone in her senior living facility in Reno, Nev., she is eager to chat. Today, it’s 78 degrees in Reno, she tells me.
The 73-year-old has been looking forward to speaking with the “Zoomers,” who have been calling since biotech start-up Matter Neuroscience set up the project on Boston University’s campus in March. The start-up’s “Call a Boomer” payphone is its latest endeavor to inspire people to live a happier life. It’s a free payphone that will sit on Comm Ave for about a month, serving as a stark contrast to the ever-present cell phones in everyone’s hands.
The payphone connects to a similar one at the Reno senior living facility that reads, “Call a Zoomer.” When the phone rings in the facility’s recreation room, whoever is nearest answers. When I call this time, it’s Jaynes.
About 2,800 miles east, standing at the BU payphone outside Pavement Coffeehouse, I tell her that the sun is out, but the wind today is rough. It makes it difficult to hear her soft voice at times, but her enthusiasm still travels through the line.
Matter Neuroscience, a science-based “happiness company,” has a simple goal: making people the happiest they can be, Matter social strategist Calla Kessler says.
“We’re focused on helping people live a happier life by understanding their brain’s chemistry when it comes to their feel-good neurotransmitters in their brains,” Kessler says. The idea behind the free payphones was to connect younger adults with older adults, two of the loneliest demographics, Kessler says.
“Humans need more connection in their lives,” she says. “Loneliness is…bad, and combating that with connection is key, because when you have a conversation with someone—even if it’s a stranger, even if it’s short—and it goes well, you’re going to have positive effects from it.”
“It’s a small-scale action with a large-scale effect,” Kessler adds. Picking up the phone and talking to Jaynes is easy. What she says is simple—but decades of distance make her story feel foreign. She’s a small-town girl from Texas who met her husband, Chris, through friends when he was stationed nearby during his Army service.
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