Alexis’s Blog

By: Alexis Dennie

Everyone’s more worried about what’s new and cool, so the old technology of cell phones is dead and gone. They don’t know what they looked like, how they were operated, if they even changed or if they have become more advanced as the future progressed. There could be new advantages, or new disadvantages with cell phones from now and from the past. Wouldn’t it be cool to know what your parents did before iPhones? Well now you can find out for yourself! If you really knew what they had to use before this new advanced technology, you would be extremely shocked! I did an interview with my mom to learn about cell phones worked before I was born.   

What did cell phones look like before I was born? The appearance of an old cell phone falls under a lot of topics, the size, color, shape etc. I interviewed my mom about the appearance since she was alive before I was born. I asked her if the size in cell phones changed from what they were then, to what they are now. She said, “Yes, they were much larger than what we have now. They were about the size of a small purse, or you had a car phone.” Whoa… not what I expected! We also talked about if they had about the same shape or if it changed. The response she gave was, “It has changed, now there are cell phones you can just fit in the back of your pocket because they are small and rectangular, but before you were born we had big phones you couldn’t even fit in your pocket! They were tall and bulky.” Having a cell phone is great but I’m not sure I would like it for it to be that size. Then I asked her if they had screens so you could see what numbers you were dialing, she said, “No they were just old push button phones.” I wouldn’t like that very much.

How were they operated? For this idea I had so many questions after what I had heard about the appearance. My first question: Was turning the phone on the same as now or different? The response was, “Yes it was the same, just the press of a button.” My next question was how would you charge it? She said, “Well you had to take the battery out of the phone and place the phone battery on its charger to charge it. Then after it was done charging you had to put it back in your phone.” That’s pretty interesting to me, now we only have to plug it into the phone and wall. My last question about this topic was how was the service for making a call? She said, “You had to be in town to make a phone call to have good service. But it also had an antenna on it to help.”

How have cell phones changed? This was the best topic about cell phones before I was born! So I asked my mom if the appearance changed at all, she said, “Oh yeah! They used to be just a couple of colors either grey or black. They were very plain; you couldn’t put a colorful case on it like you can now. The only “cool” thing you could have for them were clips. It was a long clip you put on your pocket to clip the phone there to hold it.” The next question I asked was did the way you operate it change? She said, “Yes it did. They used to be just push button but now they are all touch screen or flip phones so that changed the way you operated it.” The question I found most interesting was did the features change? She acted like I asked the dumbest question in the world! “Yes! Now you have apps, games, internet, and books, almost anything imaginable with a touch of your finger, we only had buttons with the numbers and we could only call people when we needed.” It’s just amazing how much technology can change over a period of time.

My very last topic is about the advantages and disadvantages cell phones had now and before I was born. I asked about this in my interview and the response I got was, “Cell phones are way more convenient than they were before you were born. Now you have them for emergencies, to text people when you can’t make a phone call, and more reasons. Some of the advantages are that the cell phones we have now are smaller, faster, more advanced, and a lot more reliable than before. But they do have disadvantages too. They can break or cause more damage easier than before. People can get your phone number easier now and call you for sale ads or something else that’s crazy that you don’t want. There are big differences between cell phones now and then” I was surprised by all of the answers she gave me. I didn’t expect cell phones to be that different then they are now, but they really are.

Well now you know how cell phones looked, how they operated, how they’ve changed and about how they have their advantages and disadvantages. I hope this help you understand better, because I made it way more clear for me!

waddell. Stephanie. Personal interview. 26 march. 2012