Pre- mobiles and internet time, question for those who knew it

[Vapin' Joe]

Would anyone really want to give up their mobile and go back to public phone boxes? Half of them had been vandalised and when you did find one that worked there were at least three people in the queue before you, all waiting for the nob with eight pounds worth of 10p coins waiting to pump in while he spoke to his girlfriend on the other side of the country. When you did finally get in they stunk of pi$$ and there was often a used condom on the floor.

 

[fossyant]

I find a lot of young people are really poor at interacting with people in real life these days.

One thing that does hack me off is certain family members 'expect' you to have your mobile on 24-7. Nope, it get's turned of at night as the ruddy things beep or vibrate. MIL is still angry with us 8 months later when she fell on the floor in the middle of the night. We had our mobiles off. The care company had only tried to contact our mobiles, not the house nor other relatives. The house phone is always on. Telling her we were asleep she insisted that mobiles should be left on. We said no. She has 'red care' anyway, so the care company are round within minutes. That's one down side. She's also a right pain in that she will try every phone in the family if we don't answer one, wife, then me, then the kids. Bang out of order. Thats where being 'in communication' goes too far.

 

[Hill Wimp]

Things felt more relaxed without all the forms of communication we have nowadays.

 

[growingvegetables]

Would anyone really want to give up their mobile and go back to public phone boxes?

Happily .

Hey - I spent years where making an international call meant a 2 mile walk to the exchange, waiting in a half-hour queue to book a call, and then waiting until my turn came up. Aye - and then the call was bugged by the country's "intelligence" services.

 

[Pale Rider]

Aye - and then the call was bugged by the country's "intelligence" services.

Bugging phones reminds me of child kidnap case years ago in which a loony family was trying to hide their child from social services.

They came up with a plot to spirit the child away to a remote part of Scotland.

Suspecting, correctly, the coppers had bugged their home phone, they used a nearby call box to make the arrangements.

Not suspecting the coppers had bugged the call box as well.

 

[tyred]

The thing about most modern stuff is that it's so convenient.

I love using my fully manual film SLR but digital is easier and cheaper so the film cameras only come out for special occasions.

I prefer the sound of vinyl but being able to store your entire record collection on an easily portable device smaller than a matchbox is great, especially as I mostly listen to music when moving around.

Does anyone still use a typewriter?

I was a reluctant convert to smart phone but wouldn't be without one now.

I like classic cars and love the simple engineering approach but how many would want to crawl underneath their Austin Cambridge with a grease gun every few weeks?

 

[NorthernDave]

The impact on social life is huge.

Back in the day, you'd arrange to meet your mates in the pub at a given time and there was then no way of getting in touch if you were held up (your bus knocked, for example) or plans changed. I was lucky that we had a regular circuit of pubs on a Friday night if we were staying local, so you had a rough idea where people would be throughout the evening so at least you could catch the group up. If we were off into town it became a whole lot trickier...
Now not only can you contact them instantly, but you can invariably see who else is there, what they're drinking and how they rate it.

I find a lot of young people are really poor at interacting with people in real life these days.
One thing that does hack me off is certain family members 'expect' you to have your mobile on 24-7. Nope, it get's turned of at night as the ruddy things beep or vibrate. MIL is still angry with us 8 months later when she fell on the floor in the middle of the night. We had our mobiles off. The care company had only tried to contact our mobiles, not the house nor other relatives. The house phone is always on. Telling her we were asleep she insisted that mobiles should be left on. We said no. She has 'red care' anyway, so the care company are round within minutes. That's one down side. She's also a right pain in that she will try every phone in the family if we don't answer one, wife, then me, then the kids. Bang out of order. Thats where being 'in communication' goes too far.

Yep, we get this with certain family members - if for any reason Mrs NDs mobile isn't answered then it's panic stations and ringing round my mobile, the house phone or even work. It's never been for anything serious, usually just a chat, but there is this assumption that you must be contactable 24/7 and the inquest that comes with not answering immediately that doesn't wash with me (Where are you, why didn't you answer, I've rung 3 times, etc, etc).
In fact one of the best features of my phone is an option that I've set so that the phone doesn't ring or give any notifications between midnight and 6am. The only exception to this is if Mrs NDs rings me on her mobile - and as she is normally asleep beside me this has yet to happen.

 

[growingvegetables]

One thing that does hack me off is certain family members 'expect' you to have your mobile on 24-7.

There is one small, very small, vanishingly small, upside to this. Those who try guilt-tripping you - "WhereTF have you been? I've been calling you for hours! I wanted you to ....".

Umm - sorry, lady (in this case ). But my phone shows NO missed calls. Not from your number, or anybody else's. Tough!

 

[Blue Hills]

In semi-relation to the moaning about the modern world thread, which has been very interesting, I wanted to ask a question to those CC members who have been shuffling about a bit longer than me (I'm 23.)

I don't want to be guilty of viewing the past in a rose-tinted way, and putting aside various bad things about the sixties, seventies, eighties, etc.... there is one aspect of the pre-internet pre-mobile phones time that I find very appealing.

My basic question is for anyone who was a young person or adult in that time. Did you prefer the way social communication was back then?

Because I tend to think I'd prefer it- no Mobile Phone making you Constantly Available to everyone (for example some people get really offended if you don't get back to them within a couple of hours) no Facebook for people to get drama from (and I'm not on it so end up missing out on things sometimes, grrr), people actually having to stick to arrangements (for young people now, if you don't text someone to confirm your arrangement on the day, they'll often just assume it's off and not turn up, and I think mobiles encourage slackness and make people late more often).

You're just less available. So the quality of communication must have been better, right? If someone wanted to get hold of you, they'd have to try your landline, or knock on your door or write or something. When you were out you'd be untouchable. I know there were big downsides and everything is more convenient and easier now, but I just think it would have suited my personality better.

So what was it like? I'm really really interested to hear any thoughts, preferences, any relevant stories, how it was generally.

I will agree to add a poll if Accy requests it.

Have liked your post but while I read through everything just to say what a great open-minded thread start. And confirms one of the best things about cyclechat - its healthy spread of ages.

 

[palinurus]

Back in the 70s no-one could call me because we didn't have a phone.

Now I've got a mobile phone but no-one can call me because invariably I've left it in my courier bag and the battery has gone flat.

 

[Blue Hills]

The other big difference is travelling. When I did my gap year thing, I left and that was that. Communication, such as there was, took place via air mail & poste restante. I was footloose and fancy-free, and it was great! When my daughter went round NZ a couple of years back, she messaged us complaining about every lumpy bed she had to sleep in, or to tell us about her canoeing. Which was...fine. But again, it just wasn't the same, and I did feel that something had been lost.

On travelling, the other thing is the wondrous trusting to chance back then. I did a few years of inter-railing as a student and when working. All done by the seat of our pants - little planning. Once woke up in a sweaty train carriage to find that my mates had decided on a bizarre whim to get off in small Greek seaside village none of us knew owt about. Very fond memories of the two or three days we spent chilling there. And of course when young, despite scare stories, there usually seems to be a guardian angel around (the one that gets you home pissed from distant parts through streets you don't know) and even when things go "wrong" you are still likely to end up somewhere interesting. I have the feeling that folk these days research things to death and at the slightest hiccough start researching options. Or the next stop. Despite being a fanboy for technology for much of my life, writing about it/promoting it, mobile-comming when most folk, even some tech journos, didn't realise it was possible, these days I don't even have a smart phone. Will get one eventually but not in a hurry.

 

[PK99]

A friend had a major cycle accident out in Surrey, the driver following called and ambulance on her mobile no more than a minute or two after he hit the deck.

 

[Blue Hills]

i was around when the first mobiles came out ie the size of a 1 gallon petrol can and used them often they were horrendous

yes, showing my age, I remember being on a press trip bus for some bit of Racal. They came round with this big massive brick/suitcase from their pals at Racal Vodafone so we could have a play with it.

 

[Blue Hills]

Cameras and film...

In those days you had to buy film, and also account for processing costs

A week would probably have been 2 rolls of 36 exposure film. You then selected very carefully and planned what you would and wouldn't photograph

Then the weather would mean that taking photos was pointless and you regretted not taking more when the weather was good..... or the opposite, realising. that you took too many at the start of the week and are running out of film, and there was no real budget for more.

If you did compromise, then you also ended up where you had to wait until you could afford to process


My present setup can take some 6,000 photos on the camera and with my backup drive I can in theory take 2 million photos with no problems

Photos - I well remember as a kid waiting for the photos to come back to boots to see "if they had come out".

 

[Vapin' Joe]

A friend had a major cycle accident out in Surrey, the driver following called and ambulance on her mobile no more than a minute or two after he hit the deck.

Three people were wiped out by a truck driver who was either texting or watching a film on his mobile last year.

Swings and roundabouts.