Question by Marianne not Ginger™: What did the world do before cell phones?
I walk down the street. At least every other person is on a cell phone. Those that aren’t, have one clipped on their waist. I walk through the mall, airport, restaurants, etc. People are all on the cell phones. You pull up next to another car at a stop light and turn to see the driver…….on his or her cell phone.

Did we really miss this many phone calls prior to cell phones being invented? Or are we as a society totally overcommunicating now that we have them?

Best answer:

Answer by GLH (male 47 UK)
How could we miss what we had never had before? It was perfectly normal to go a whole day without phoning your best friend to tell them that you were were walking down a street or that you had just fed the cat.

Phone calls were important then – we used telephones connected to walls in our homes and offices or in public phone boxes. When someone called it was nearly always to tell you something that was worth taking note of, rather than the mindless chatter that most people now seem to spew out when using a cell phone.

In those days you could eat in a restaurant or travel on a bus or train without being treated to a lurid description of someone’s gall bladder operation or latest date from the nearby inconsiderate idiot with the cell phone clamped to his/her ear.

There are instances of kids as young as 4 owning a cell phone – WHY? who do they need to call? their friend the other side of the playground? their stockbroker?

I have a very useful cell phone – it has several very useful features on it:-
1. it has a torch light built in
2. it has an OFF switch

I use both of these features far more than I actually talk or text – and hey… guess what?… my World hasn’t come crashing down on me, I don’t feel isolated from the rest of society and best of all I get to decide when I want to hear about someone’s gall bladder operation rather than having some fool interrupt my work or lunch to tell me.

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