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I don’t think most people under 40 can wrap their head around what it was like to need to be home or at work for someone to reach you, which required a phone ca

I don’t think most people under 40 can wrap their head around what it was like to need to be home or at work for someone to reach you, which required a phone call. And you couldn’t make a phone call unless you were at home or work, or stopped at a pay phone. And what if you called someone that wasn’t home? Or were on the can and couldn’t pick up in a few rings? Sure you could leave a message but they probably had no way to get back in touch with you. You just had to wait and hope they called again. No text. No email. No Caller ID for most people pre-internet. No GPS for most people, and even if they could give you GPS coordinates, wear are you going to with them? Hope you got a really big fucking globe.

dyauspitr 2mo ago
Yeah, but none of that really mattered, did it? The expectation everywhere was you couldn’t really reach people that easily so you didn’t and you didn’t miss it. Also going to places involved mapping out your path on a map ahead of time and then struggling a little bit in complicated places where you would ask local people for directions. There was no GPS. We didn’t know what we were missing. It didn’t feel like a real problem at all.
- DrewADesign 2mo ago
  As a teenager that hated being at specific places at specific times, it was often an annoying problem for me. The second I realized I could get a cheap pager, I did so without hesitation.
ButlerianJihad 2mo ago
You know, it's very strange; during a normal week I may go "out and about" a lot during the day, even though I'm not employed, and I just go do errands or shopping. And I'm out in public carrying my phone. Now I may be 100% available to answer phone calls, whether I'm sitting on the bus, walking down the sidewalk, sitting in a clinic waiting room or a restaurant. But I am definitely not 100% available to talk to you. Especially if you're a billing department, medical office, or some business that wants me to both authenticate my PII and then talk about some personal, financial/medical matter. That is not a conversation for public space. That is a conversation I must have in the privacy of my home (and with access to my computer for files!) So that is why we used to have phone booths. I don't own a car, which is essentially a large, privately-owned, mobile phone booth. Sadly, because pay-phones went away, privacy booths naturally died with them. Dr. Who understood. But Pacific Bell didn't! So just because you can reach me, and I can reach you, doesn't for a minute mean that it's an opportune time to talk.
- DrewADesign 2mo ago
  Someone I used to work with left to start a business selling “phone booths“ for private mobile phone conversations in public. I believe they’re called Private Talking Spaces. Not sure if he’s still doing it. I thought it was a good idea but obviously there’s no financial incentive like there was with a phone booth, so they had to be purchased and installed by whoever owned the space.

dyauspitr 2mo ago

Yeah, but none of that really mattered, did it? The expectation everywhere was you couldn’t really reach people that easily so you didn’t and you didn’t miss it. Also going to places involved mapping out your path on a map ahead of time and then struggling a little bit in complicated places where you would ask local people for directions. There was no GPS. We didn’t know what we were missing. It didn’t feel like a real problem at all.

DrewADesign 2mo ago
As a teenager that hated being at specific places at specific times, it was often an annoying problem for me. The second I realized I could get a cheap pager, I did so without hesitation.

ButlerianJihad 2mo ago

You know, it's very strange; during a normal week I may go "out and about" a lot during the day, even though I'm not employed, and I just go do errands or shopping. And I'm out in public carrying my phone. Now I may be 100% available to answer phone calls, whether I'm sitting on the bus, walking down the sidewalk, sitting in a clinic waiting room or a restaurant. But I am definitely not 100% available to talk to you. Especially if you're a billing department, medical office, or some business that wants me to both authenticate my PII and then talk about some personal, financial/medical matter. That is not a conversation for public space. That is a conversation I must have in the privacy of my home (and with access to my computer for files!) So that is why we used to have phone booths. I don't own a car, which is essentially a large, privately-owned, mobile phone booth. Sadly, because pay-phones went away, privacy booths naturally died with them. Dr. Who understood. But Pacific Bell didn't! So just because you can reach me, and I can reach you, doesn't for a minute mean that it's an opportune time to talk.

DrewADesign 2mo ago
Someone I used to work with left to start a business selling “phone booths“ for private mobile phone conversations in public. I believe they’re called Private Talking Spaces. Not sure if he’s still doing it. I thought it was a good idea but obviously there’s no financial incentive like there was with a phone booth, so they had to be purchased and installed by whoever owned the space.