I know to younger people, especially those born anytime after the year 2000, their life would seem really strange if they never had that triangular gadget that we’re so used of carrying around at all times. I mean, what would we do without our cell phones? How would we live? To a certain generation of people, it is simply unimaginable.

How would we call somebody when we needed to talk to them? How would we text anyone? How would we check our Facebook, Instagram, etc.? Well, it must be remembered that cell phones are still sort of a new thing, so trust me when I tell you that we were all fine before cell phones. What? Now way! How?

Life was good before cell phones

It really was. I would even go as far to say that it was better. Don’t get me wrong, I like my cell phone. I use it for everyday business, texting, checking my emails, banking, browsing the Internet, listening to music, using the calculator, taking pictures or videos, and the list goes on and on. But, somehow mankind found a way to do all of these things before cell phones, and believe me when I say it wasn’t that difficult.

How did we talk to others before cell phones?

It’s not like we didn’t have phones. When we wanted to talk to somebody, we would use our house phone. To tell you the truth, it was kind of nice not having a cell phone with you at all times. You never heard anybody ask “Why didn’t you answer?” No need to make an excuse when you really want to tell them to stop bugging you.

When cell phones first became the norm with people (when most people started having them) there were debates as to why an individual should or shouldn’t have a cell phone. One thing that I will always remember is people talking about how a cell phone would be handy if their vehicle broke down on the freeway. This mostly came from women, and you’d have to be a moron to not understand their stance on this. I mean, who wants to picture their wife, mom, daughter or any other loved one stranded on the freeway? Having a cell phone would get help to them right away, and that was a great thing. It certainly has made life easier.

Having access to your kids was also a great thing. Being able to call your kids whenever you need to sure made parents feel safer. There is nothing wrong with all of this. This is what is called improvements in life. But, believe it or not, we all got along just fine without cell phones. If we broke down on the freeway, there was always a near-by call box. I know that seems hard and difficult to some people, but it really wasn’t. Is having a cell phone better? Heck yeah. But we did just fine if we had to use a call box or a payphone for that matter. As far as kids go, we also did fine without cell phones. If your parents asked you to call them so they can know you were alright, you made that call with a payphone. No biggie.

I can go on and on. The point is that even though cell phones make things much more convenient, they were not a necessity. Now, I would say that today they are a necessity. I dare you to try to find a pay phone anywhere.

How did people text before cell phones?

We didn’t, and we didn’t need to. It was great for us, we actually learned how to speak to people. I’m not here to to pick on a certain generation, but when you pay attention to the younger generation of people, have you not noticed the lack of speaking skills? I mean, they don’t need to speak with a high vocabulary or anything like that, but geez, they really need to learn how to talk. These people are in their teens or are young adults, and it’s like you’re speaking to a 5 year old kid.

This lack of communication skills cannot all be blamed on text messaging. There are other things that contribute to this too, but I won’t get into right now. Back in the days we had to speak even if it was a situation when we didn’t want to speak, and in the long run it was good for us. When we were scared to talk to someone, or maybe a bit nervous, or maybe needed to ask someone a question, we had to call them and talk. Now, when people are scared, nervous or unable to gather the nerves to ask a certain question, they can easily not face the situation and send a text instead.

Teenagers used to work up the nerves to call that boy / girl that they liked. Sometimes it was difficult and a person would hang up when they heard “Hello” out of nervousness. Things certainly are easier now as you can just send a text message to your crush. Personally, I don’t know how two people could make a connection through texting. There was something about the voice of the person you liked that made you want to them more and more.

How did you take pics or record videos before cell phones?

We didn’t worry about all of that. We were all too busy enjoying our lives. We lived for the moment. We did not have to take pictures of everything we were doing. Sure, when we would go on a trip or do something unusual we would make sure to have a camera to take some pictures, but we didn’t live for the camera. We didn’t sit around taking pictures of ourselves all day. We had fun and experienced things together. When I think deeply about this it really makes me sad as most of the younger generation of today will never experience this life.

Video recordings are in the same boat as the pics. If you took a trip to Disneyland or any other special destination, you would take take the camcorder to do some recordings. It was meant to capture special moments.

Times sure are different now. These days, if there is a serious physical fight between two people, you have a bunch of idiots pulling out their cell phones to record it instead of trying to break up the fight. This generation is different, when a person is in trouble and needs help nobody will reach out to help them. They would rather record the person’s misery and post it on social media.

How did we check our emails before cell phones?

Again, we didn’t and we didn’t need to check our emails on the go. Any important documents would come through regular USPS mail. If a friend that lived far away wanted to write you a letter, they would send it by mail. Sure, we didn’t get it right away, but we all loved getting letters from friends and family. I know some people think regular mail takes too long, but it all worked out perfectly for us. It was always a pleasant surprise.

How did people browse the Internet before cell phones?

In the 1980s, we didn’t worry about it and didn’t care as it didn’t exist. In the 1990s, we used our home computer. During the first decade of the 2000s, we still mostly used our home computers, although web browsing on our phones began a bit during the later part of the decade.

Around 2013, as technology improved, Internet surfing became normal. Basically, since smart phones came about, people have been surfing the Internet from their cell phones. It can be great when you’re someplace you won’t want to be. Just get on your phone and browse the web. Look at our world today. Everywhere you go, people’s heads are looking down at their cell phone.

I remember a few years ago when I went into a bank to open up a new bank account. While sitting in the lobby waiting to be called, there were about 8 other people ahead of me. They were also sitting there in the waiting area. Nobody acknowledged one another. No hello, how you doing – Nothing! Everyone’s head was just glued to their cell phones.

My point here is that we did not need the Internet on the go. If we wanted to surf the net, we would do that at home. We didn’t feel the need to have the Internet with us everywhere we go.

How did you find your way around before we had GPS on our cell phones?

This question sort of makes me laugh because it shows just how lazy young brains have become. Sure, the GPS on our phone is convenient. Just type in an address and click on go.

But, way back in the ancient days, – (I’m being sarcastic) – we actually had something that was called a Thomas Guide. It was a book with maps that covered your area. Usually they would cover your state or local counties.

The Thomas Guide was usually broken into 3 sections. It had special maps in the front, the street maps (which made up the majority of the Thomas Guide) and the Index of streets at the end of the book. Some thinking was involved here though. You would have to look up your street address in the Index. Once you do this, you would know the page number that shows your address. You’d also get a letter-number code to help you once you got to the page. If it was B-3, you would look down from the B and across from the 3. This would narrow it down so you could easily find your address.

The page you are on would also show you 4 other page numbers being on the top, bottom, left and right side of the page. This was to help you continue on a map. For example, say from your location you are trying to follow the map to your destination, but the page ends, one of these four numbers is going to tell you a new page to turn to in order to continue.

Sure, this might sound confusing and nonsensical to the younger generation, but trust me when I say it became second nature. Once you became a master of the Thomas Guide, there wasn’t much thinking involved. It’s really amazing what the mind can do. So, yes, we did not need GPS.

How did you listen to music before cell phones?

Depends what era you are talking about. Music has been around forever and there has been various ways to listen to music. We always had the radio of course. There was records, eight-tracks, cassette tapes and then compact disc. Nobody ever had a problem getting the music they wanted.

It was actually kind of fun too. People would get together and go down to the record store or music store to buy the music they wanted. My era was mostly the cassette tape and CD times. It was so cool to have a new tape or CD of your favorite music artists. Most of us had collections that we were proud of.

I know, music is so much more easier to get now as we can just download songs straight from our cell phone. We can store all of our music onto our phone and not have to worry about having tapes, CDs or anything else making a clutter. That part is really nice.

I remember when the whole MP3 player thing first came out, lots of people didn’t like them. The thinking was if you lost your MP3 player, you lost all of your music. It wasn’t like as if you just lost one CD, you’d still have the rest of your CDs. In time, this was debunked though.

Honestly though, music is underappreciated these days. It’s no big thing anymore. That’s the way life is though. The easier something is to get, the less appreciated it is. Why do you think gold is so valuable? Because it is scarce. If gold was everywhere and easy to get, it would not have much value. Music tracks are much less valuable and less appreciate than they used to be.

So, we as a people were very happy with our music before cell phones. We enjoyed music just as much, and honestly much more than people of today. We did not need cell phones for music. Damn it! Where’s my walkman! If you are too young and don’t know what that is, you’ll have to Google that one.

How did you figure out math problems before we had cell phones?

Simple, instead of having the calculator on our cell phone, we actually had a physical item that we called a calculator. It worked in exactly the same way you use the calculator on your cell phone. But, I have to admit that there was times when we needed to figure something out but didn’t have a physical calculator handy or nearby. What would we do? Oh no – Here we go again – We had to use our brain! We got a pencil and a piece of paper and figured the problem out. I know, so ancient to have to use your brain, but we did what we had to do.

How did people keep up on their social media before cell phones?

Well, social media became a major thing with MySpace. This site began in 2003 and was the number one social media website for a long time until they self-destructed and gave that spot to Facebook. Again, with smart phones making their move around 2013, social media sites became more easily accessible. As we all know, today, a good portion of the population’s lives are centered around social media sites.

If we go way back, social media sites were not a concern to anyone because they didn’t exist. When they did come around, people would check their MySpace, FaceBook or any other social media account from their home computer. It was no big thing, and it was really healthier for people instead of being glued to their social media accounts all day on their cell phones.

Why young people may find cell phones to survive without

I may at times sound a little sarcastic toward young people, but nobody should get offended. I understand that no one has any control as to when they were born. The younger generation was born into a certain era. It was not their choice. Cell phone technology may have been around as long as they can remember. Ever since they were little, there’s always been a cell phone in their hands.

When you are used of something being around since your memory serves you, it’s only natural to feel like you couldn’t live without it. People of my generation cannot imagine living without a microwave or washing machine, and I’m sure the young ones would agree with me on that, but believe it or not people were just fine before these things existed. People still ate and people still washed clothes.

There is a big difference between my generation and this younger generation though. We only use the microwave when we want to eat. We only use the washing machine when we need to wash our clothes. Cell phones are entirely different. People of today grab their cell phone looking for something to do on it when there is nothing they really need to do. Have you ever watched some people when they don’t have their cell phone. They have no idea what to do with themselves. They are completely lost in the world, and this is a terrible thing.

I will say this though, the world has definitely turned us in to highly dependent people. They have made it almost impossible to live a normal life without a cell phone. Personally, I need it or else I would not be able to operate by day to day business. With that said, there are times when we, including myself, use our cell phone for entertainment purposes. I mean, it is our television, music player and camera now. I believe that’s how it all starts with kids. It’s their entertainment, and they become obsessed with it.

Like it or not, cell phones are an initial part of our world and are here to stay. Our dependency on them will grow even more as the years go on. There’s no stopping it. But, as an individual, if a person feels they are spending too much time on their cell phone, they should try to put it down once in while. Too much of anything is never a good thing, it don’t matter what it is.