Do you remember the world without smartphones ?

@SW-User I had a rather eerie experience of that a few years ago.

I belong to a club that has self-catering accommodation available to members and bona-fide guest groups. One Saturday evening I was the only member present alongside a guest group of about ten or twelve members.

They barely said a word to each other, let alone to me, and I felt I could not try to talk to them.

One was busy on her lap-top, apparently for work or study. A couple in the corner were engrossed in another lap-top: probably a film or game.

The rest was each in a hermetic 'tap-tap-scroll-scroll' bubble on his or her too-smart-phone.

I think I found something to read for about two hours then went to the pub, leaving this silent order's digital scriptorium to its own isolationism.


Maybe they were conversing with each other, but had lost the skill to do so by Nature's way!

@ArishMell Hi, yes, it happens a lot. Often in a bus I'll take a quick poll of the passengers and often over half are looking down at their phones. Truth to tell, I sometimes read on my Kindle.....😀 But I do often try to chat and have got to know one or two people who often seem to be on the same bus at the same time.

We try to encourage our grandchildren to spend less time on phones and tablets but it can be a losing battle. Tat said, they do read a lot and mum takes them out and about as often as possible.

@ArishMell @SW-User yes I see that a lot too...how sad and desolate

@SumKindaMunster Well, you choose to let it rule your life, don't you?

One reason I do not have one! I do have a portable telephone but I refuse to be its slave, it is not connected to the Internet, and it spends more time switched off than on.

@ArishMell

@ArishMell That's what I want....a phone, not a computer in my pocket that keeps tabs on me.

@Queendragonfly lmao same

@Pretzel YES

@Pretzel But there was a phone book hanging there some times

@Suggestmeone You could even buy small, pro-forma address-books to create your own directories! (Still can, I expect.)

@Musicman I had a boyfriend once who really boasted at working at Texas instruments. All the time. The name did not mean shit to me so no response back from me....

@Axeroberts
The one that run my first program at Uni, Clementina.

@ElRengo cool. I remember using cards.

@Axeroberts Those ones, yes

@revenant I do turn mine off at times or leave it at home and don’t care who likes it.

@JustDJ76 so do I. I like to leave at home or turn it off. But I get people " why did not you answer your phone ????
I just want peace and quiet. How hard is it to understand that ?

@revenant They are selfish to some degree I suppose. We are in an on demand generation and they expect it out of people too

@littlepuppywantanewlife We had mail-order shopping, and still do, which amounts to the same thing, though.

It was amusing looking through all those little mail-order catalogues that uses to fall out of magazines like the [i]Radio Times;[/i] selling the oddest collections of things you don't need but can't do without. From "sonic" mole-repellers to nose-hair clippers; humane spider-traps to the sort of kitchen utensils you use until the novelty wears off.

@revenant That was in mid seventies in the country. We would hear her pick up her phone, just like sharing a phone call now by joining calls. We really talked a lot of crazy when we knew she was listening. You could yell for her to hang up but never until we started messing with her

@revenant Just as well. There were usually nosy neighbors listening in on the line.

@SW-User wow....🤥

@Jonjdw me too....so free...

@robingoodfellow they are like hypnotised

@Picklebobble2 I remember keeping my change too to use pay phones. And feeling no guilt whatsoever leaving my first flip phone at home.

@Thinkerbell need Maxwell Smart's shoephone too

@Thinkerbell that's pretty cool

@ElRengo When I was a small child I went to the train station with my Dad and I could hear the telegraph clicking away in the background. The station master wasn't paying any attention to it so I assumed the message was for someone else. Here in Canada the telegraph system was run by the railroad companies.

@CrazyMusicLover

Oh no, my 1st Smartphone was probably 05'. It was too much phone for me back then, so I took it back. 😂

@calicuz That was when I got my first cellphone, I think. 2005 or 2006.

@CrazyMusicLover

Yeah, I was a late bloomer as well. 😂

@calicuz so did I ..I was carrying around this little pocket book with numbers 😂

@revenant

I had one of those calendar books that had a section for phone numbers in the front pages. 😂

@calicuz guilty too 😂

@BizSuitStacy that is kind of funny really. I was joking that there would be lots of neck problems later. And years later.......................😂

@BizSuitStacy And watched where they were going.

@revenant you were right!

@HumanEarth Yessir, that was the good old days.

@Nanori so did I

@Iwillwait I have all kind of stuff on my phone now like Google Pay and such...fuck that !

@Mamapolo2016 Indeed, and then when they did start to appear they were used for purely scientific and administrative purposes.