How Did People Live Without Cell Phones?

When I leave the house, I make sure I have the necessities: keys, money, ID, and cell phone. If I forget my keys, money, or ID, well, I’d just use my cell phone to call the appropriate person to help out. But God forbid I ever leave home forgetting my cell phone, it’s as if I’m practically trapped on a deserted island, chanting out for help with no one there to hear me.

Which begs me to wonder, how the hell did people live without cell phones?

I can’t even imagine what it would be like going out at night without texting your friends to meet you at a bar or telling them you decided to change the night’s plans, and having NO WAY of communicating with that person until you (hopefully) meet them at your intended destination. In the past, there was no way to just sporadically meet up with other friends.

Maybe that’s why my mom yells at me when I don’t have set plans. I just rely on my cell phone and the people out to direct me.

Now I was a late-bloomer in getting a cell phone, and at times in high school, was one of the few who relied on payphones. Yes—payphones. I’ll probably tell my grandkids, “I remember the days when people used to use PAYPHONES!” but right now, I’m stuck trying to tell my grandma how to save a number as a contact in her phone. (Seriously—I don’t know what’s with that generation. I could show her 10 times how to do it, write it out step-by-step and clip it next to her photo of the grandkids and she will STILL not get it).

We have become so reliant on this piece of technology, that it’s hard to imagine living life without it. What's even harder to imagine though, is that the "phone" aspect of a cell phone isn't even the coolest feature. The more that I realize it, I barely even talk on my cell phone. It’s because ever since December, I joined the common bandwagon of “unlimited texting.” If thumb wrestling were an actual sport, I could make a good living after the workout my fingers are having. The cell phone has become so commonplace in our society, that anyone who doesn’t have one is practically Amish.

So the next time I leave my house without my cell phone, I might as well turn around and head home. That way, I can at least text my friends and let them know what happened rather than walk around aimlessly. And by aimlessly, I mean the way people used to walk, that is before they had cell phones.