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Child Item

What did people do before mobile phones?

Nala

Me and a few of my friends have been discussing this-what did people do in the days when we didn't have mobiles? What if you were stuck in traffic and would be half an hour late to meet up with someone, what if you lost someone in a nightclub and needed to find them at the end of the night, what if your car broke down, and what if you gave someone your number and when they ring they get through to your parents!!! Any time I've ever lost my phone I feel like I've lost an arm!

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OfflerCrocGod

I'd just use my handy portable semaphore.

Sarky

padi89 wrote:

I prefered life without mobiles, you ACTUALLY got off your ass to call around to people,people WERE on time,people WOULD meet up,things now that are just too excuseable with the old text message and im guilty of all of these.Dont get me wrong theres times im glad ive had one but when they werent around they couldnt be missed.

QFT. Before everyone had a mobile phone, they actually allowed for time in traffic, or the shower, or whatever. I think they've made people really f*cking lazy as regards socialising. You can do better, you know. We managed all the time before we had them. Stop taking those little numbers and names for granted. Make some MEANINGFUL contact with your friends. And for God's sake, quit putting lol in text messages. It's embarrassing.

Also, kudos for whoever said there'd be no crazy frog.

Sam Vimes

clacks towers anyone?

faceman

Nala wrote:

Me and a few of my friends have been discussing this-what did people do in the days when we didn't have mobiles?

er, where you dead back then????

faceman

Commander Vimes wrote:

clacks towers anyone?

'cept that one in rathmines, does it tell a different time on each side? or is it just broke?

connundrum

NADA wrote:

I mean imagine asking somebody to their face to go out with you?

OMG teh shock and horror of it all :eek:

I didn't really bring a mobile around with me till I was 17 or thereabouts. I thought it was great tbh.

Friday in class - see you tomorrow night in the usual at 8 bells? Yeah!

I remember when I got separated from the group on nights out and I'd just go round chatting to randommers instead of having to ring them/text them every few minutes, trying to co-ordinate a search and rescue operation.

Mobile phones, whilst I can clearly see their benefits, leave nothing to chance any more. It a way for us to keep closer tabs on each other, and it allows for fewer and fewer mistakes... or opportunities.

I reckon I'd survive tbh

walrusgumble

funny ya dont see many phone booths any more on quiet roads. i remember a mate use to go to every phone box to lok for used phone caards. the saddo collected them. still i dont miss the boxes. on a sunday morning (beore we got the landline phone installed in the house) we use to go to the phone box and ring the gran or the football manager to see where we were to meet up before the game. it use to be hell trying to find a clean phone box, because after saturday night adventures the boxes would either have been smashed in, full of puke and sometimes even blood. then also the odd johhny on the handset.

the mobiles can be a curse, my mates parents use to constantly ring him to see were he was at or when he was coming home after discos (i was lucky i would switch mine off)worse also if you have an untrusting g/f who decides to check who you have called or texted to recently or received.

ic urrently share an office with a girl and some day i am gonna chuck her mobile out into the liffey if she dont turn off the voulume or stop taking personal calls. if i hear "hello moto" and its ridiculous tune one more time.....

[Deleted User]

I was thinking about this yesterday and asked my Dad
He said landline in his day were a bit expensive (they had had one since the 60's though) but some of the pay phones on the streets didn't have the technology to cut you off (providing you were calling local and he also said the one on Greencastle road in Coolock was notorious for even letting you call international landline's for a certain amount of time on 10p or whatever it was at the time

constitutionus

you know theres still alot of people who dont have or refuse to get a mobile

only got mine myself about four years ago and that was cause i got it on the cheap from a mate who worked for seimens at the time.

how did i get by? i turned up when i said i would at the last meeting with my mates or used the landline at home to ring em to confirm. they might be a godsend for confirming meeting times but to be honest i kinda miss the fact when i was off my job couldnt get me unless i was at home, now the feckers can get me anytime:(

that said for all their faults mobiles have freed me from Eircom. damn fleecing bastards made my life a misery and ditching em was the best thing i ever did. least now i dont have to pay line rental anymore

Miguel_Sanchez

The constant barrage of texts that people send these days is irritating. You arrange to meet in a pub. The person comes in and if you're not directly in their line of sight at the door they whip out the phone and text 'Where r u?' instead of just *gasp* walking around the pub and looking for you.

****ing idiots.

Guess_Who

People just made proper plans before mobile phones. You knew where you were going to meet your friends, you always knew the ones who'd be late so you'd be accordingly late. Now you arrange to meet, you get a text saying they're late, so you go somewhere else and by the time you meet up the meeting place has changed a few times.

And before mobile phones you wouldn't have had some tosser behind you on the bus to work, with an annoying ringtone, organising his weekend at the top of his voice just to prove to everyone that he has friends!

simu

walrusgumble wrote:

funny ya dont see many phone booths any more on quiet roads. i remember a mate use to go to every phone box to lok for used phone caards. the saddo collected them.

Oi! I used to do that! Great laugh!

Ruu_Old

^Very retro indeed, collectors items! Zing!

pepper

Ruu wrote:

^Very retro indeed, collectors items! Zing!

o:D mgf i remember them

ha ha ha:D

Exit

Why are people talking like it all happened "Once upon a time..." Mobiles only got popular around 1999.

I was back in Ireland for a couple of weeks last year, and obviously didn't have a mobile phone for the two weeks, and it wasn't a problem whatsoever. If anything, it was a bit of a relief not receiving calls about where I was or what time I was coming home.

I'd use the house phone to arrange meeting up with mates, and when I was out and needed to ring home, I'd just use a payphone. No biggie.

Archeron

Used to be that if you broke down on a deserted road before mobile phones, you approached the nearest vampire riddled 800 year old castle where you asked for help, and then, strangely, decided to stay the night.
Sadly, the increase in mobiles has seen the demise of the haunted castle as a major employer of the walking dead in this country.

Rabies

Archeron wrote:

Used to be that if you broke down on a deserted road before mobile phones, you approached the nearest vampire riddled 800 year old castle where you asked for help...

Its weird, but that is what was done. Car breaks down, walk to the nearest house, ask to use the phone, have a cup of tea and leave. People were nicer back then.

petes

String Telephone

brown*eyed*girl

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.

As for managing without a mobile all through my teens and a fair chunk of my twenties well all I can say is you can't miss what you never had so basically it was grand. We never had a land line in the house so I used to have to go over to my aunts house or the phonebox around the corner if I needed to ring my friend. The best part was trying to fit in all we could say before the beeps!! We always made our arrangements for the next day the night before and we were always on time. My friends would go over and ask whoever I fancied would they go off with me & vice versa as teenagers!! It was so much simplier then and easier to get away with things like knacker drinking because your parents couldn't check on you and you could sober up before you get home & wouldn't be asked why you didn't answer your phone. I really miss those days.

Comparing my daughter (who's nearly 14) to what we had I often feel we had it better as it was simpler. I'm just so glad we didn't have Bebo back then as so many memories are cringeworthy.

I often wonder what it'd be like if had a Bebo account back in 1989 but I'm glad I don't really.

Oh now I have great video/camera phone and yes I find it hard to live without which are words I thought I'd never say.

Terry

Christ. I couldn't tell you what model of phone I have.
I know it has a memory card and plays mp3's, so it doubles as an MP3 player and that suits me just fine.
Oh, and I downloaded scrabble onto it, which is nice.
I've ahad a mobile for about 9 or 10 years now. it used to only be for work, but that changed over the years.

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?

[Deleted User]

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.