When did mobile phones take over lives?

For me it was mid 90s and a cute little Nokia. My DD was becoming a teenager and my excuse was needing to keep in contact with her. I remember it went off in the reference library and I didn't know how to switch it off.

About 10 years ago we became very irritated with a young American volunteer who brought his phone to the breakfast table! Imagine that

The demise of phone boxes and calling the AA when you break down. How did we ever manage before?

Oh the dialup - Grannynannywanny the endless waiting while DH looked at his emails on the shared PC. He would say he was always waiting for me.

My daughter (now 35) had one at 11 because my bl***y dad bought her one.

I loved my first one. I've gradually become less interested. My current phone is an old Windows one. SHOULD be a smart phone but because it's so old, it can only text and use for calls.

I COULD buy a new one, but why? It still works.

Love my tablet though.

I got one in the mid-late 90s when we were moving house, and I wanted to take the children away for the summer, but be able to take messages from the Estate Agent.

It cost a fortune, and we had 15 minutes of calls a month! We very rarely went over, as we rationed the calls so strictly. that wasn't too difficult, though, as we only had one between us, so my husband and I couldn't call one another - it was pretty much incoming calls only.

My friend and I were saying though how silly people are who are elderly vulnerable whatever and who refuse to take a mobile with them when out even just for emergencies.
He has a friend with heart condition who won’t , he actually had a heart attack when out birdwatching and was just lucky somebody happened along and found him.

I got my first mobile in 1998. I was a newly qualified teacher doing supply work for the local authority and that entailed telephoning them at the end of the school day to get work for the next day . Sometimes I was lucky that there was a pay phone in the school that I would use after the pupils had gone home but sometimes I had to use one on the street with traffic thundering by.
I quickly saw that having my own mobile would mean that I could phone the office promptly as soon as my last class of the day departed and before I left the school for home. Having a mobile also meant that the office could phone me to ask if I would go to a particular school the next day so it really paid for itself very quickly.
My first phone was a Motorola with Orange.

I had my first mobile in 1999. I bought my sons phones for Christmas in 1998. My husband had a work phone from 1996. I'm not sure when I got a smart phone, I think around 2015.

I had my first one when I began doing community vare work - as I was driving about all over the place, particularly at night, my husband said I should have one. 1996.

Do you remember the dial up internet connection? My son spent a semester of his uni course abroad during 1998, his first time away from home. I used to arrive home from work hoping there would be an email from him. Before even taking my coat off I would go to the huge computer and set it in motion. I’d have time to change my clothes and boil the kettle and make a cuppa before the internet would be connected. Now we have it all in an instant on our smartphones

I hardly use my landline these days but it’s my IPAD that’s taken over, Email, internet and 101 other tasks.

I always remember starwars the hand held “communicator” was just fantasy, look how far we’ve come now .

Started with the good old Nokia and it did what I needed it for. Then smart phones came about with the FaceTime facility. My DC and DGC had moved to the other side of the world, so it became a must, to be able to see them and chat anytime any place. Now I'm never without my iPhone, I even have nightmares that I cannot use it or I lost it! I spend a ridiculous amount of time on social media and google!

I got one in 1993, a little Nokia, so I could easily keep in touch with my Mum after my Dad died; she was a worrier, so I when I got back from work I would let her phone ring three times so she knew I was home. I got the phone because I was quite often held up in dire traffic and I could then call her to let her know what the situation was.

I still have a little Nokia, still have the same number, and only use it for calls and texts.

I remember us going to get a carphone which must have been in the early 80's not long after we started our business then my husband & son both got a Nokia 6310 for work. Husband still has the same number he's always had and son only changed his a few years ago.

The first phone I had was a tiny little Nokia - I loved it as it was so discreet but they obviously moved on. I've had various makes over the years and have had to carry 2 around with me when I had a work phone. Now the Samsung I've got is over 2 years old but having retired I can't justify buying another new one. I don't use it that much really - more for WhatsApp and internet than as an actual phone!

My DD2 worked for Vodafone in the early days and got one of the first Swatch phones for me, exactly like this one. I made a bracket for it on the front of my bike out of a lamp holder.
One night I left it charging beside my bed and the cat managed to ring the house landline by walking on the memory buttons. I was very confused when it rang and I could hear my answer through the mobile!
I now have an old smart phone, but I don't spend my days looking at it like my GCs do!

Got one for work in about 1990. Bought DDs one each in 1994.

1998. It was a Panasonic. Followed eventually by a Nokia. Our (my dh and i) first smart phones came second hand from our sons and so it has been ever since.

1995 when my mother was entering her last couple of months, so I could keep in touch with my father. Still have the same number, about the only one I have memorised!

mid eighties we got a car phone,you had to take it out of the car overnight or it drained the battery.It was very useful though even though it weighed a ton and cost a fortune .

My mobile is my constant companion, I first got one about 20 years ago when my mother was ill.

I think now it may well be attached to the end of my arm.

( she guiltily replaces phone)

Mobile phones, computers and digital cameras really took off properly around 2000 which is the start of the digital age. They were in use in the 1990s but not everyone had them. We went on the internet in 1997 but were not the first (nor the last) to do so.

I don't think mobile phones took over our lives until smartphones came along. Once you could go on the internet on your phone, well that was it! By 2012 they were in common use. I just wish phones had stayed as phones because people wouldn't have this obsession with checking them all day every day.

I was still working and was given a phone by my work my first one it was around 98 I think not that long ago really.

1995/6 when I was expecting my dd. My Dh worked away and we invested in a mobile phone for him. How cutting edge it seemed!

I remember mobile phones becoming very popular in the mid nineties though cannot remember when smart phones came out.

!997 when I was pregnant. So I could easily summon my husband to the birth when needed! I often think, when watching older TV shows or reading older books that the story lines wouldn't have worked at all, if everyone had mobile phones!

I have a smartphone, never use it- keep it for emergencies only.