What did people do before mobile phones?

Mrs_Doyle

The Scientist wrote:

good thread...
Luckily they became commercial around the time i was 16ish so i got one then...

I was about the same age when they came out on Ready to Go, and I was one fo the first people to have the Super Stylish 088 Motoralla Bricks. Anyone remember them?

I had that phone for years. It weighed a tonne and you couldn't send or receive text on it.
My friends had started to buy 'cooler' phones, and Nokia had already started to slightly make more fashionable ,models, complete with TXT function, but I hung onto my brick until 2000.
One of my friends got the Nokia 5110 and sold me her old Panasonic phone for a tenner.
I remember that the txts used to scroll across the screen, so they would take forever to read, and also, the name of the sender didn't show, you had to memorise everyones numbers so you would know who was texting you.

Now, I can't imagine what I would do without my mobile, but back then, well, you just managed without one.
I f I was going out I would call my friends from my house phone before I left and we would arrange a place to meet, then when I got to the meeting place I just had to wait till they showed, or bugger off without them.

Heyes

Remember it perfectly, things seemed a lot less stressfull actually, that might sound daft but as a number of people have mentioned above if you were running late you were running late it wasnt a big deal, where as now its like someone has died,its just wrong.

Tbh i couldnt survive without my phone, and have been known to freak when i cant find it, however saying that it is nice when say your phone is nt working the odd time, and your un contactable...its like a weights lifted... jes that does sound strange, suppose its funny how little things affect everyone differently...

AAAAAAAAAAnnywho, rant over

chuci

write a letter in two weeks of advance before you planned to meet up. to leave enough time for the other person to reply to let you know. after that phone calls and get given out to for the cost of the phone bill

rannerap

I've had a mobile since i was twelve(19 next month),since then ive never not had one,its with me AT ALL TIMES,i even took it on holidays to america with me even though i couldnt use it,since i got my phone a few months ago maybe around 6 months ago ive sent 38258 sms messages and 340 mms messages!its mostly to my bf cause he lives in limerick and we dont get to see each other all the time.we actually wouldnt be together without meteor and free texts

Rabies

I got my first mobile in '98 when I was 18, it was on the old 088 network. My phone never leaves my side anymore.
In '03 I was in america for the summer and ran up a bill of about e550 in two months.
Cancelled my contract when I moved to NZ. Back on pay as you for the first time in 6yrs. Feels weird needing to get credit still, but works out much cheaper now. Only about NZ$20 a week compared to E100+ bill a month in Ireland.

Sad Professor

It's interesting how everyone has become so dependent on mobile phones in less than a decade. Imagine what it'll be like for future generations - they'll be learning text speak before they even go to school and learn proper English :eek:

Like a lot of people my first phone was one those Motorola bricks when I was about 17, although I got it very reluctantly, mostly at the behest of my mother who liked knowing where I was.

TBH I'm still not crazy about them, I guess I just don't like being so easily reachable and I find text messages to be a very primitive and clumsy form of communication. I mean, they're grand if you want to leave a short message for somebody who's in college or work and can't talk. But carrying out full blown conversations with somebody that you could just as easily ring, speak to and relate the same information in probably a 5th of the time it takes to text just seems stupid IMO.

So unless you're a really hot girl don't bother texting me, ok?

Black Swan

They used Q-tips?

Saint_Mel

I remember before "landlines" were popular there used to be a public
phonebox on the road outside my Grans house.

Phone would ring, an uncle would head out and answer it and the caller,
who would usually be a relation or friend of one of the neighbours, would
ask if he'd pop down to their house and tell them thre was a call for them!

Good times!

Gaspode

Before there was no mobile phones there was sod all bloody traffic.
If you lost someone in a pub or club so what, they were cramping your style anyway, so you starting chatting to someone else.
If you werent near a garage, you walked to the nearest payphone that wasnt vandalised and called for help. You then went back to your crocked Vauxhall Viva and drummed your fingers on the wheel for an hour - you didnt play tetris on your nokia thats for sure.

ScumLord

We used to just stick out our pinky and thumb and talk into our hand. You'd have to be within shouting distance of the person you where calling, totally different now though that's progress for you.

iguana

Nala wrote:

what if you lost someone in a nightclub and needed to find them at the end of the night,

You just have an end of night meet up spot that you all gather at, at the end of the night.:rolleyes:

iguana

brown*eyed*girl wrote:

This thread makes me laugh. I got my first mobile back in Xmas 2001 when I was 26!! Wouldn't get one before then as I thought they were for posers but eventually gave in when my daughter gave me her old Nokia 3210 and she upgraded to a 3310, well I think that's what they were called. God I miss Snake.

Um, am I reading this right? Your daughter gave you her old phone because she was upgrading, at the age of 8?

Jo King

People carried around change for use in public telephones. There were often queues to use them, particularly at a time when the charge was the same no matter what the duration of the call. The public phones were often vandalised and out of order. It was common to see people driving around looking for a working public phone. Pubs acted as a conduit for messages. People would ring the pub and ask for a particular customer. The barmen would keep messages for regular customers.
There was a phenomenom known as telephone tag. A person rings a landline. The person sought is not there, a message is left asking that person to call back. They eventually get the message and call back. The person who made the call is not there. A message is left asking them to call back. When they do, the above occurs, again and again.
One time in the 1970s the taoiseach was required urgently. he was being driven through Limerick county at the time. The Garda stations on his route were telephoned on their landlines and asked to stop his car if and when he appeared, and then bring him to a telephone in the station to return the urgent call.

Terry

iguana wrote:

Um, am I reading this right? Your daughter gave you her old phone because she was upgrading, at the age of 8?

nice maths.
What the hell does and 8 year old need a mobile phone for?

Faith

julep wrote:

nice maths.
What the hell does and 8 year old need a mobile phone for?

More to the point, what does an 8 year old need to upgrade their mobile phone for?!

brianthebard

simu wrote:

It was awful tbh. You'd miss out on nights out, get interrogated by parents when a new voice of the opposite sex called on the house phone, got stranded...argh! //

And before the internet, you were just so isolated. Your only choice of friends was amongst people living nearby, you'd have to scour magazines for info on bands and so on, you would spend ages trying to find out what some sex slang word you didn't dare to admit you didn't understand actually meant... the list goes on.

Viva communications tech!

Jesus you just summed up my teenage years-I'm only twenty!! Before mobile phones, people planned a lot more. When you went to town, you'd say where you were going, how long, how much cash, when you'd want to leave, where to meet and when, etc,etc,etc. Now its more like "So I'll meet you-" "Oh don't worry I'll just call you".

Hydroquinone

I agree that nights out were far less stressful before mobile phones. You arranged to meet your mates and you met them. Simple.
None of this fannying about getting fourteen different text messages from people who are running late or who can't find you in the pub.
You arranged where to meet them at the end of the night and you met them, or you didn't, if they'd gone off with a feller. I doubt that any more people were murdered by random loons from nightclubs 20 years ago than there are now.

In fact, now as I think about it I ended up going out with a barman in a pub I used to go to, in my single days, before mobile phones, when dinosaurs roamed the earth, because he took a message from a mate of mine. Turned out her Ma had had an accident, so Mary rang the pub, looking for me to say she couldn't come out. I hadn't arrived yet, the bus was late, so the barman took the message and when I arrived, he gallantly kindly offered to look after me and we ended up going out for about a year!
I wonder what the equivalent of that is these days?