n 1979, we did not communicate in acronyms. We had our own lingo. This language was common to all age groups. We had phones that were dialed. We had mail. We had tin cans and strings. No one ever really knew where anyone else was at any given moment. There were times when someone was “unreachable”. At 11:00, very few parents really knew where their children were. It was a time of freedom. It was a time of mystery. It was a simpler time.
And then, somewhere along the line, everything went nuts…
It seemed to start with “car phones”, which were cost-prohibitive to many people and just having an antenna on a car could imply a level of status that might not be completely accurate. One Christmas I received a “portable phone” for my car, as they became more affordable. It was deemed a solution to a safety concern when driving to work at night. To be honest, I never knew how this new fangled gadget worked. I think it involved standing on the roof of the car with the plug in the cigarette lighter.
Then phones became smaller and more portable. They also became a symbol of a “coming of age”. Our eldest was given her first telephone when she was about 16. This was the beginning of the end!! Within a very short period of time, young people were chatting as they walked down the street. Honestly, who did they need to speak to that they couldn’t wait until they got home or use the mad money quarter and find a phone booth? Then there was this thing the kids called “texting”. I considered texting to be teenage witchcraft. How was this possible? I had just figured out how to send an email. I banked “on-line”. I was a cool mom. I knew MSN. I knew about Facebook and what “creeping” meant. I thought I was all there, but this texting thing?!
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