“Call a Boomer” is a social experiment by Matter Neuroscience featuring bright yellow payphones that connect young people in Boston directly to seniors in a Reno, Nevada, housing community. The phone automatically rings at the other end when picked up. On BU’s campus, the phone is located by Pavement Coffeehouse.

Campus Life

Dating Advice from a Boomer, 2,500 Miles Away

A payphone on BU campus connects Gen Z to seniors in Nevada

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. 

In March 2011, Chris passed away after 40 years of marriage. Not a day goes by that Jaynes doesn’t say a prayer for her late husband. When she attends mass, she lights a candle for him. He is undoubtedly still everything to her. “Life is that way,” Jaynes says. “You go through things here and there.” After meeting Chris, things progressed slowly, carefully, and intentionally.

“Women were courted,” Jaynes says plainly. 

Their first dates weren’t out in public, but rather at Jaynes’ family home. They played pool, talked, and got to know each other before going out on a proper date. Meeting the woman’s parents was a rite of passage before the pair could go to a restaurant or movie theater. “My dad gave him the third degree,” Jaynes says with a laugh. “He questioned Chris from A to Z.” 

They married when Jaynes was 18, and Chris was 21.

Still young, they grew up side by side. From Texas, they moved to California, and later to Nevada, after they had their children. Jaynes tells me she cried when she first saw the mountains in Nevada, overwhelmed by their beauty and unfamiliarity. Still, Chris was determined to show her places she’d only ever read about in school. “We did so much together,” she says. “But more than anything, we just enjoyed each other’s company.” 

She asks me about what dating is like for a college student at Boston University. I admit it can be complicated, messy, and a huge headache. Having grandchildren, Jaynes knows the dating landscape has shifted. “I hear from the youngsters [that] you have dating applications on the computer,” she says. I tell her it’s more like apps on cell phones, where you swipe “yes” or “no” on potential partners. “Maybe meet someone in town that you know of,” she suggests, not so discreetly dissing the fast-paced movement of modern dating. 

I ask how she got married so young, and how she managed to make it last. She gives me a list: 

Despite being old-fashioned, Jaynes is not dismissive of the modern world. She understands that kids growing up in a new generation deserve understanding and advice. 

I thank her for the past half hour of wisdom and tell her I’ll do my best to follow her advice. 

“Life is an adventure, honey, there’s so much to see and do,” she says. “I’m not just learning from you, you’re learning from me.”