Question to really old people. Was there ever a time when they didn't have cellphones? Like in the olden days

Question

Like the 1970s? My sister said they always had cellphones, but I sometimes see movies where they have to use one of those phones that you stand there and put quarters in.

My mom just told me to say no offense old people. No offense to old people.

Answer 1

Let me teach you some history. My father-in-law died in 2004 aged 91 years. That meant he was born in 1913. At that time there was no radio, no television, the majority of aircraft carried only one person and were held together by string and doped paper, very few people had a landline telephone (let alone a mobile/cell), only the very, very rich could afford cars, home refrigeration was, again, for those rich. Nuclear power and the H-Bomb weren't even the matter of science fiction. If you went to the dentist for a filling it was likely he would use a drill powered by a foot treadle - and it was very slow and very painful! And there were no antibiotics if you caught an infection. I was born in 1942 at which time there was still no television (although it had been introduced in this country - the UK - in the late 1930s transmissions, which were only very limited, stopped the moment war broke out). My parents did not acquire a set until 1954 and then it was only black and white - colour didn't arrive here until the late 1960s. There were some civil aviation flights, but only for the very few and certainly not across the Atlantic - and of course jetliners were at least 10 years into the future. My grandmother had only gas lighting until at least the early 1950s. We had no central heating and my father had to fetch coal in every day and light a fire. Of course space flight was just in the imagination and as for computers - well the thought that I could be sending a message like this was even imagined. In fact the machine I'm using right now has more computing power than was available to the astronauts who went to the moon. I had my first cell/mobile phone in the early 1990s. So, you young whippersnapper, the world many of us 'really old people' were born into was remarkably different from that of today. It remains to be seen if the pace of change will be as fast over the next 100 years or so.

Answer 2

Well, I'll try to access my rusty old brain...I was born in 1970 (AD not BC) and no they didn't have cell phones in the 1970's. What you are referring to is a phone booth or pay phone, which I believe still exist. Back in the olden days, calls cost a dime not a quarter. They did have a form of cell phone in the late 80's which was expensive and huge and ugly. They didn't really catch on until the 1990's. Hope that helps. I'm going to get my cane and go back to my rocking chair now. (If you can do math...I'm 37, which is not really old. You young'uns need to learn some manners!)

Answer 3

Wow, you must be really young. And pretty ignorant.

Cell phones are a relatively recent invention. They started in the 1980's. The earliest ones were about the size of a briefcase. Later they shrunk to about the size of a 710ml pop bottle. And they were just phones, no games or text messaging, no internet or cameras.

Oh, and that's only 30 years ago, hardly the timeframe for "really old people". You really need to learn more about your history. You live in a world where technology is everywhere. But it wasn't that long ago that many farms in North America did not even have electricity.

Answer 4

That crazy contraption you put quarters in is called a "pay phone", and they are still in existence. Cell phones did not become widely used until the earlier part of this decade. Even in the 90's, not many people had them.

p.s I am 24- I guess that's "really old".

Answer 5

OK Jes K - we all know you're taking the piss.

I remember when cellphones were the size of house bricks and the batteries were so heavy that you could never carry them more than a 100 yards.

That was only 20 years ago - so hardly the "olden days".

You wait 'til you're an old git - we'll all be laughing (in our graves).

Answer 6

Well we got our first phone about 1960 or 61 when I was 8 or 9 years old, and it was a party line, which means all your neighbors could listen in. I think the first cell phone I remember seeing was in the late 80s.

Answer 7

No cellphones in the 70s. They didn't arrive until the 1980s

Answer 8

The first "cell phones" were the walkie-talkies they used in the war. It took a long time for the cell (or mobile as it is called in the UK) to become as small as it is now.

The first mobiles were heavy as a house brick and just as clumsy - but as technology progressed they have got smaller and have many more programmes,

Pre Mobile, we just used the telephones either in the house, or in the street if you didn't have one at home - and guess what - we survived!!

Answer 9

I wish I could go back to my Olden days again... Yes they are the best.. When all the birds are singing in the sky....

Answer 10

My twenty year old son remembers when there were no cell phones. the only people who used cell phones in the eighties were the very wealthy and the phones were huge.