nav[aria-label="Primary Navigation"] { padding: 0; & ul { list-style: none; width: 100%; display: flex; flex-direction: row; justify-content: start; align-items: start; gap: 30px; padding: 0; & li { margin: 0; } & ul li { list-style: none; } } }

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!

Find more posts tagged with

Quick Links

Comments

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?

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".

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?!

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?

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.

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?

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:

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.

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.

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!

[Deleted User]

They used Q-tips?

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?

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.

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

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

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

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.

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.

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.

petes

String Telephone

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.

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.

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.

pepper

Ruu wrote:

^Very retro indeed, collectors items! Zing!

o:D mgf i remember them

ha ha ha:D

Ruu_Old

^Very retro indeed, collectors items! Zing!

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!

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!

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.

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

[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