Old men talking about their pills and what they had for lunch. About like this place.
Here's some things I do with ham radio:
1. Transmit Emails and Text Messages to any place on earth, via HF radio, particularly if I need to get a message to my parents or friends or business partners regarding my status during hurricanes, weather events - or just for fun.
2. Bounce my 2 meter radio signal off the ISS as it flies overhead and talk to other HAMs across the county (cause the ISS has a voice repeater on it) or talk to the Astronauts themselves.
3. Have a conversation with people all across the planet whether it be voice communication or digital chat (similar to text messages).
4. Provide support services to our county in the event that significant power outages occur and set up a network of radios so emergency managers can communicate with the EOC in Raleigh or any other EOC as needed.
5. Set up a mesh radio network on 2.4 Ghz using Linksys routers and do video and audio chat or send documents all within its own private (non-public) network... self standing without outside internet services.
6. Send images of anything over HF to other Hams - particularly handy in the event you need to describe conditions of weather events or, as they say, pic is worth a thousand words.
7. Bounce your signal off the moon and make a CW contact with another Ham operator another country. (EME Earth Moon Earth).
8. Participate in county emergency simulations and be a part of something bigger than ourselves - help others in disasters (ie., Puerto Rico Hurricane).... get messages from stateside to folks looking for family members in PR.
9. Learn Morse Code .. - ... .-. . .- .-.. .-.. -.-- -.-. --- --- .-..
10. Build your own antennas (dipoles are easy).
11. Help the boy scouts get their merit badges for radio communications.
12. Plot your position on a APRS map and send messages from your vehicle - and its NOT texting violation.
13. Do a Summit On the Air (SOTA) mountain activation - climbing a mountain and make contacts w/ others on mountains.
14. Join a local Ham, ARES, Auxcomm club in your county and learn about the freedom of having your own communication system - especially if or when it goes dark....
15. Help your neighbors get a message to their families if disaster hits - ie., tornado.
16. Learn about radio waves, solar weather which has a large effect on radio propagation and subsequently earth quakes, electronics, and share your knowledge with others who find radio communication fascinating (which the history of radio development itself is interesting to learn about).
17. And as to the comment about old men talking about their pills or what they had for lunch, just remember - they may be home bound, disabled and without a spouse living any longer and the only means of communication they have is with others on the air - friends, people they can actually TALK with as opposed to using texting some stranger on Social Media.