Teenager Before Smartphones

[RedAngie]

We had a party line for a while when I was very young. But we eventually had to switch to a private line because our party line was constantly being monopolized by two Babushkas yammering away in Polish. As mentioned above, some people were addicted to landlines even way back when.

I got my own phone line soon after I turned 16. I wanted touch-tone but my parents were too cheap and I had to use the rotary dial. My number was listed in the white pages under my parents’ number as “Teenage Line.”

My grandparents owned a small store and it had a pay phone on the wall. Not a booth. A fair amount of people in the neighborhood didn’t have home phones and used this pay phone. My mother frequently had to run and tell Mrs. So-and-So that she was wanted on the store phone. Or she had to relay messages.

I didn’t find out until many years after she died that my grandmother was the neighborhood gossip and would eavesdrop on people using the pay phone and repeat any juicy things she overheard.

 

[Pea-n-Me]

Having flashbacks with parts of this conversation to the days when smart phones first came out and there were hot debates here about whether “children” needed them. I mean, we still see some of those conversations here today (more like, what age), but they are nothing now like they were back then.

 

[PollyannaMom]

Definitely tough questions. I think I'm glad I grew up without them. They create pressure kids do not need.

But I'm also so much better at texting than talking. So I might have had more of a social life earlier if we'd had them.

Overall, "they are what they are" - they're here, and like any other tool, come with benefits and costs (many of which aren't evident up front).

 

[ronandannette]

Had my own phone line so I could talk to my boyfriend or friends any time I wanted to.

I’m glad I didn’t grow up in the age of smartphones and social media because man, I did some dumb stuff back then lol

Good gravy; I simply CANNOT fathom how I would have gotten through it under the scorching heat of social media. The pressure kids are under today, much of which is self-inflicted and callously inflicted on others as if it's their nature now. None of them can stop and get off; hardly any even know it's possible, despite the anxiety, envy and depression and worse harms it causes.

I have to say I am shocked-I figured it would be close to 50/50.

Are you glad they are around in present day or do you wish they had never arrived on the scene at all and not just in Teenager Land?

This one is tougher. It's impossible to say the convenience isn't a benefit - everything from GPS to banking apps at your finger-tips, not to mention how many job situations now simply require a cellphone. But for me personally, I'm an introvert that must function like an extrovert all day, every day, in my work and for church and community commitments and I mentally need time where I can feel hidden. I despise my phone ringing for personal stuff after-hours and almost never answer it. Nor do I instantly reply to texts unless the matter is urgent. I don't carry my phone with me from room-to-room and I don't sleep with it by the bed. I don't participate in social media at all (not one single account on any platform) except the DIS and I consider it a hobby done on my own terms. I don't always even answer posters when then quote me.

 

[Pea-n-Me]

Kids these days don't know what it was like to never have a smartphone so they don't know what it was like. It surprises me that everyone comments on questions like this saying they are glad they didn't have them, but now they are addicted to them.

Well the OP‘s question was specifically geared toward teenage years. Maybe people would’ve answered differently otherwise, idk.

I wonder if we'd have as many people addicted to their phones if we would have started straight out with smartphones for everyone rather than a slow ramp up over a decade plus with rich people starting with the bag phones, then the not rich but want to look rich, to a few normal folks, then the bar phones so more normal folk, then the flip phones and getting to half the people to the smart phones and everyone addicted to them but me.

My husband got a phone installed in my car after I was followed and nearly attacked by an irate older male driver in a road rage situation and had to run into a police station for help. Thankfully it was light out and I knew where I was going or it might not have ended well for me. We weren’t rich by any means, and I certainly wasn’t trying to appear that way. It was basically a safety issue and we took advantage since the technology had become available (probably mid 90s). It cost a lot but we figured it was money well spent after that. (DH shortly afterward got a bag phone for his car which was free as part of some promotion. It served its purpose but he rarely used it. He had a 70 minute commute in the dark in those days, though, so I was glad he had it.)

I guess you could say I’m addicted today to my iPhone, but not so much because I talk (rare) or text on it. I use it for a lot of different things, especially the Notepad. I keep my shopping lists and a whole bunch of other details on there like my locker number, my car discount codes, letters I’ve started to write, links I need for work, things like that. Recently I was about to run to the store to use a Fax machine and DD showed me how to scan things into my phone so I could send them electronically instead. GPS is a given. Using the Wallet feature comes in handy so at registers or at home I don’t have to go fumbling around in my pocketbook to pull out my wallet and open it, etc. I use the calculator a lot, etc. And I still have an older iPhone 8, not really even up to date on the newest technology. Oh yes, try going to WDW today without one, too. You can do it, but you’ll be left in the dust (unfortunately).

Using a cell phone for work is far different than constantly needing a phone in your face in your non-working time. When talking about phone zombies and such, so many people always justify phones with work when work has nothing to do with the topic.

Idk that it doesn’t have anything to do with the conversation. I was thinking about it myself. I have to carry an iPhone at work, and really, I wish I didn’t. It weighs down my pocket and gets in the way of other, more important things I have in my pockets like lists, pens and medications. Try to get pills out of my pocket and the phone falls out; go to pull the phone out and pills and papers fall out, etc. Things are better without the phone that way. But, at the same time, I need to be available to others (and vice-versa, talk to others) right away, so that part’s important too. But it literally drives me crazy. Obviously I don’t carry my cell phone around with me at work, it stays out of the way. So I think the work issue, for me, is more intense than the cell phone at home issue. Everyone’s jobs are different.

 

[RedAngie]

I remember the days, really not that long ago, when people said they got cell phones “just for emergencies.”

Within a month, calling hubby on the cell to pick up a quart of milk on his way home from work was an emergency.

The US was late in widespread cell phone ownership. Back in 1997 in Hong Kong I was amazed that practical everybody had a cell, from business executives to the woman gathering discarded cans on the street.

As for being a status symbol, some stores sold fake plastic cell phones for pretentious wannabes who needed to appear important.

 

[Pea-n-Me]

I was thrilled to have access to AppleWriter, the first word processing program that I knew of and it was a big deal back then. I remember using it at our school's computer lab to type my college application essay so that I didn't have to use my dad's old typewriter and white-out.

I was already done with college in the 80s, but DH went in the 90s and we got a Brother Word Processor then.
I thought I died and went to heaven!

I’d paid a lady $3 a page to type my papers, because, although I could type, I wasn’t that good at it on a typewriter, plus the papers themselves were so intense it was nice to just hand my chicken scratch over to her and take a breather. It wasn’t something I could really afford then but I had to. So to be able to type up DH’s papers and fix things electronically was so amazing to me! And that was even before we got home computers.

I used to say to my kids when they were in school, you have the world at your fingertips here. I spent HOURS (and lots of cash) in libraries xeroxing (copying) things out of books that I needed to know. Don’t even think about asking a [school] question that you can easily google yourself.

It would be interesting for today’s kids to get a taste of what it was like for us back then.

I saw this the other day and thought it was funny.

 

[RedAngie]

I used to type papers for classmates in college for $2 per page, $3 for rush jobs. Electric typewriter. I’d correct obvious misspellings or verb tense errors, etc., but otherwise left them as is.

If they gave me enough time, I’d review the papers and make suggestions for changes or revisions for an extra fee.

 

[CdnCarrie]

I don’t know anyone who is less social because of their cell phones.
I keep reading and hearing this from people but have never witnessed it.

 

[Kathryn Merteuil]

In short NO.

I feel like being a teenager in the late 80's early 90's was the best time to be a teenager. Heck, if I could get stuck in time somewhere, it would be that timeframe. Oof I sound old.

 

[mrodgers]

I guess you could say I’m addicted today to my iPhone, but not so much because I talk (rare) or text on it. I use it for a lot of different things, especially the Notepad. I keep my shopping lists and a whole bunch of other details on there like my locker number, my car discount codes, letters I’ve started to write, links I need for work, things like that. Recently I was about to run to the store to use a Fax machine and DD showed me how to scan things into my phone so I could send them electronically instead. GPS is a given. Using the Wallet feature comes in handy so at registers or at home I don’t have to go fumbling around in my pocketbook to pull out my wallet and open it, etc. I use the calculator a lot, etc. And I still have an older iPhone 8, not really even up to date on the newest technology. Oh yes, try going to WDW today without one, too. You can do it, but you’ll be left in the dust (unfortunately).


Idk that it doesn’t have anything to do with the conversation. I was thinking about it myself. I have to carry an iPhone at work, and really, I wish I didn’t. It weighs down my pocket and gets in the way of other, more important things I have in my pockets like lists, pens and medications. Try to get pills out of my pocket and the phone falls out; go to pull the phone out and pills and papers fall out, etc. Things are better without the phone that way. But, at the same time, I need to be available to others (and vice-versa, talk to others) right away, so that part’s important too. But it literally drives me crazy. Obviously I don’t carry my cell phone around with me at work, it stays out of the way. So I think the work issue, for me, is more intense than the cell phone at home issue. Everyone’s jobs are different.

The "addicted to the phone" sort of needs defined. I define that as you can't drive further than 2 feet in a car without needing to pick up your phone and text or you can't ever "drive" a car without the phone being up to your ear (drive in quotes because those people aren't driving, they are talking on their phones.) Or can't walk around without the phone in their face on social media and such. There's a line, though a grey one, between being addicted to the phone and just using the phone because it's better than using a notepad, pen, camera, bunch of store cards, grocery list, calculator... all individually.

Those aren't things I use on a regular basis outside of work, but they are all tools I use at work on the phone rather than having all of that on my person. The redundancy I have is I also carry a flashlight as I said earlier while also having a light on the phone. But for tool use, the phone doesn't work as a flashlight. Does work for random like trying to see the door lock, or the steps heading to your car in the morning. For trying to find leaks in a pressure vessel underneath where the vessel itself is shadowing where you're looking, a flashlight is what you need.

Plus there's the whole does work provide your phone for you or do you provide it. Many people pay $1500 and $150/month simply for likes on social media. That's the kind of addiction I view these threads about, not because instead of a larger bulky calculator you use your phone instead at work. All these people standing in line in the grocery store chatting away to their mothers or sisters ignoring the person waiting on them aren't doing it because of work.

 

[mrodgers]

I remember the days, really not that long ago, when people said they got cell phones “just for emergencies.”

Within a month, calling hubby on the cell to pick up a quart of milk on his way home from work was an emergency.

The US was late in widespread cell phone ownership. Back in 1997 in Hong Kong I was amazed that practical everybody had a cell, from business executives to the woman gathering discarded cans on the street.

As for being a status symbol, some stores sold fake plastic cell phones for pretentious wannabes who needed to appear important.

I believe, or at least it use to be, cell phones and service is outrageously expensive compared to the rest of the world. I have no idea how it is now elsewhere, but still every time I look at cell service for a family of 4, it's $180-230/month. And yes, you are fairly well off if that's just something to pfffttt... about and that isn't any big deal to you.

I got a cell phone and regular service when I got divorced. She ran out and got a $210 plan plus 3 new iPhones. Then when she found out I got a phone, said she was going to cancel and I can take care of their phones since it's OK that I have one but not when it was the 4 of us. I would have just gone back to $5/month for texting. I'm not paying $200+ plus and buying $1500 phones just for everyone to play on FB.

 

[TraderStitch]

I am forever thankful cell phones weren't a thing until after I got out of HS. Combined with social media, all they do if have negative effects on kids bringing a whole new set of problems. If it was up to me, social media wouldn't exist. It's creater's hearts were in the right place at first but things went off the rails faster than they could have anticipated and sadly there is no going back.

 

[loves to dive]

I bet it was long enough to enter another room with it and close the door on the cord to guarantee Privacy!lol

I guess that would have worked had there actually been a room in our house that no one was in. 6 kids, usually only 3 bedrooms and 1 bath, 5 of the 6 boys. The closet might have worked but I'm betting had I tried a brother would have been either pulling on the cord or trying to open the door and had they not been able to open it, they would have taken it off the hinges. No such thing as privacy with a big family.

 

[disneyseniors]

For everyone who lived their teenaged years Pre-Smartphones,do you feel you were "cheated" by not being able to have constant communication with Boyfriends and Girlfriends and Friends,etc. during those special years?

Or is anyone glad they weren't tethered to a handheld computer during the days of teenager life?

Well, in the dark ages when I was a teen, LOL, we only had rotary phones. We had one on the kitchen wall and one in Mom's bedroom. I remember stretching the cord to the porch outside so I could have some privacy. Those were the day, LOL. You couldn't tie the phone up for long either, so there were no long, long talks.
I really don't know if it is better now with smart phones or not, but times and things do change.

 

[tvguy]

I don’t know anyone who is less social because of their cell phones.
I keep reading and hearing this from people but have never witnessed it.

Oh lord, that started being a problem 5 or 6 years ago. The people who don't answer their cell phone unless they feel like it, never set up the voicemail or never check it, and ignore texts. One person told me "just keep calling, and eventually I will answer".
The extreme case was with co-workers who were on duty, had company cell phones, company cars with sync, and they wouldn't answer calls, respond to texts, or e-mails from the office. Boss finally put her foot down, "if you get a call, text or email from the office when you are on duty, you have 10 minutes to respond or you will be suspended for a day without pay"

 

[LuvOrlando]

For everyone who lived their teenaged years Pre-Smartphones,do you feel you were "cheated" by not being able to have constant communication with Boyfriends and Girlfriends and Friends,etc. during those special years?

Or is anyone glad they weren't tethered to a handheld computer during the days of teenager life?

Egads no, I am sooooo grateful we did not have any of this in the 80s because our idiotic ideas like skitching or sliding off swings drunk on wine coolers stay safely in the past, not that I would know about those sorts of things

I have to say I am shocked-I figured it would be close to 50/50.

Are you glad they are around in present day or do you wish they had never arrived on the scene at all and not just in Teenager Land?

Wish it never happened

I hope the economy tips people and kids into deciding that the sorts of phones on steroids we have now are unnecessary expenses and it all ends up being a fad that was fun while it lasted. If food prices keep up like this it is only a matter of time, if people can't even feed their families eggs and vehicles stay such an absurd expense how long until the phones slide out of contract and into a drawer? The clock is ticking on this way of life I think.

I remember cell phones being free and $9.99 a month in the mid 90s, my single $100+ phone bill is a monthly PO. In truth my family of 4 has a cell phone bill that could easily cover a cars costs, no way other people aren't thinking this too.

 

[tvguy]

We had a party line for a while when I was very young. But we eventually had to switch to a private line because our party line was constantly being monopolized by two Babushkas yammering away in Polish. As mentioned above, some people were addicted to landlines even way back when.

We apparently had a party line at the house my parents lived in until I was 3. I'm too young to remember. But when my parents bought the house in 1950, it was considered as being "in the sticks", 13 miles from downtown Sacramento. There was supposed to be a 5 year wait to get a phone. But my mom was a Nurse and the hospital stepped in so they got a phone right away, but there were only enough phone circuits to get a party line. The other party on the line was informed that it was possible they may have to cut off a call if the hospital needed to get a hold of my mom.
When we moved in 1960, we were only 6 miles from downtown. The two things my mom took delight in in the new house were having a private phone line, and having an an electric clothes dryer so she would never have to use a clothes line again.

 

[sam_gordon]

The "addicted to the phone" sort of needs defined. I define that as you can't drive further than 2 feet in a car without needing to pick up your phone and text or you can't ever "drive" a car without the phone being up to your ear (drive in quotes because those people aren't driving, they are talking on their phones.) Or can't walk around without the phone in their face on social media and such. There's a line, though a grey one, between being addicted to the phone and just using the phone because it's better than using a notepad, pen, camera, bunch of store cards, grocery list, calculator... all individually.

If you're going to define it that way, than probably there aren't as many people "addicted" as you and others make it seem. Are they out there? Yes, but not in huge numbers.

Those aren't things I use on a regular basis outside of work, but they are all tools I use at work on the phone rather than having all of that on my person. The redundancy I have is I also carry a flashlight as I said earlier while also having a light on the phone. But for tool use, the phone doesn't work as a flashlight. Does work for random like trying to see the door lock, or the steps heading to your car in the morning. For trying to find leaks in a pressure vessel underneath where the vessel itself is shadowing where you're looking, a flashlight is what you need.

And back when I might need it for work, I kept a multi tool, a penlight, sharpies and pens on a pouch on my belt. When my job changed, I didn't need to carry them any more, so I stopped. I still have a pen light in my backpack "just in case", but haven't needed it yet.

Plus there's the whole does work provide your phone for you or do you provide it. Many people pay $1500 and $150/month simply for likes on social media. That's the kind of addiction I view these threads about, not because instead of a larger bulky calculator you use your phone instead at work. All these people standing in line in the grocery store chatting away to their mothers or sisters ignoring the person waiting on them aren't doing it because of work.

We just got three new phones and four lines of service, switching to ATT from Verizon. Service for four lines, insurance, taxes, and fees come out to about $250. The three new phones... $5/month EACH. Need to pay them over three years. So $180/phone. That's for two iPhone 14s and a Galaxy S21. So the 14s are the latest and the S21 is one generation old. $150 up front. Now, unless your "many people" paying $1500 AND $150/month are for multiple phones, I think you're either exaggerating, assuming what things cost, or getting bad information.

 

[CdnCarrie]

Oh lord, that started being a problem 5 or 6 years ago. The people who don't answer their cell phone unless they feel like it, never set up the voicemail or never check it, and ignore texts. One person told me "just keep calling, and eventually I will answer".
The extreme case was with co-workers who were on duty, had company cell phones, company cars with sync, and they wouldn't answer calls, respond to texts, or e-mails from the office. Boss finally put her foot down, "if you get a call, text or email from the office when you are on duty, you have 10 minutes to respond or you will be suspended for a day without pay"

What would be the difference between answering a personal cell phone vs a landline phone?

And you’re describing a work situation not a social one.
We use Teams at work to talk. Not cell phones.