Friday Question #132
How old were you when you got your first cell phone? Was it a novelty then? Are you likely to update your cell phone as technology changes, or do you stick with what you have?
I purchased my first cell phone (on my own) when I was 16, in the summer of 2000. I was the first person in my family to have a cell phone! I bought it so I could call a friend who moved away, and not have to pay long distance charges. I didn’t get a new phone until I was 19-20, when Steven gave me his old phone (so he could get a new one). I think he gave me another old one of his when I was 21-22. Then, when I was 23, we both got Motorola phones, which we have had for about the last three years! It does calls, photos and texting and that is about it.
Here’s Steven using our awesome Motorola phone (the one we both still have) at our wedding (September 1, 2007). I wonder who he was calling…
Hey Steven, there you are on the phone again! What did you do, spend our whole wedding on the phone?! Just kidding, I know who you were calling this time… the limo to ask why the f*ck they didn’t show up. Let’s not talk about that.
Here’s a picture my older brother took (to be obnoxious) of my phone in November 2004. Hey Nick, I bet you never thought I would use this photo! Ha! (This is the phone I had when I was 20)
Here I am at a dress fitting in April of 2007, talking on the phone to one of my bridesmaids who decided not to come get fitted for her dress because she was too tired. Drama. (This is the phone I had when I was 22)
For business, I have a BlackBerry Tour (barf) and Steven has the iPhone. Neither one of us really use them for phone calls. That isn’t really their primary function. I use my BlackBerry for emails mostly. I’m not sure what he does* on his iPhone but he is always on it (especially during family time*).
I am really not one to feel like I need the newest phone. Yes, even with the new Droid R2-D2 phone, I am not that interested. I think that is because I use my camera for taking photos, my netbook for surfing the net, my tv for watching movies, and I generally don’t text that much. The smart phones definitely come in handy from time to time (well, when they get service) but it’s just not something I lust after.
I worry that I will be one of those old people who isn’t interested in new technology. I just figure if what I have works, why change it? I am not opposed to new technology… maybe I am just cheap? It’s actually a bit ironic that I feel this way, because Steven is the exact opposite and loves new technology and learning about it. I’m not saying he is care free with his money and buys everything new once it comes out, but he keeps up with all of that information.
*Just teasing you, Steven. You know I like to use your iPhone when I don’t have my camera/am too lazy to get out my computer/am bored in the car.
Themocracy
Someday someone is going to have to surgically remove my iphone from my hand.
I have to stay with the one I have. New technology gets me frazzled.
There is NO WAY I’m telling the age I was when I got my first cell phone. I’ll say this…my first cell phone wouldn’t fit in anyones pocket.
Umm, your limo didn’t show up?! wtf!
I got my first cell phone my sophomore year of college in Fall 2001. I wish I had it freshman year- it would have saved me a lot of money to not call my bf at the time long distance on the school landline, lol
Yeah. We asked for a white limo and gave them specific instructions to show up 30 mins early, since we were paranoid about it. They showed up as we were leaving in the shuttle (we had shuttles for our guests) about 45 min late in a black limo!
I got my first cell senior year in college. But I HATE the phone, but am somehow addicted to my Blackberry. My fiance has an iPhone and I feel like I’d have to pry it away from his cold, dead fingers before he ever gave it up.
I got my first cell phone when I was in high school. Somewhere between 1997-1999… I inherited my brother’s phone/contract because he wrecked his car and could no longer afford the cell phone payments. It was not a newer style phone by any means because it came with his car! I don’t really remember much about that phone but once the contract expired I didn’t have a cell phone anymore (none of my friends/family did either). When I got to college, I eventually decided to get a phone right after Junior year. A few friends had them and I decided if I was spending my summer at my parents house I would need an alternate form of telephone (they had a no calls after 10pm rule). I had that old boxy Nokia that so many people had. I learned to text on that phone! Now I just have an LG flip phone (I’ve gotten a new one every 2 years per my plan). I am up for a new phone in Nov and I’m not sure I’m ready to part with my current phone. I definitely don’t need a smart phone and I’m definitely not willing to pay for the data packages!
That is what we were just talking about today… we already pay $100 a month just for our lousy plan, the data package would add about $60 more!
OK, this is very weird b/c I JUST had this conversation with Matt yesterday and I am very much like you on this issue. ( also had the same worry, but I do think I am just cheap when it comes to certain things…Matt has the original Droid that came out through Verizon and he and I both like it)
I got my first phone just after I graduated college (December 2001) and have pretty much just upgraded every 2 years(or 3, usually by the time I get around to it). I don’t think I’ve ever paid more than $50 out of pocket for a phone (factoring in Sprint upgrade bonuses, rebates, etc).
To illustrate just how cheap I am and that I don’t care about my phone as long as it works: When my dog Roxy (Jack Russell) was a puppy, she chewed the antenna of the phone I had back in 2006 and left bite marks around the top of the phone. I had only had the phone for a month at that point and even after the “damage” it still worked perfectly. I carried that phone until June of 2008 when it was stolen!! (Matt and my friends teased me incessantly about the “Roxy cell phone” but oh well!)
I currently have an LG Rumor (July 2008) and am due for an upgrade but can’t figure out what I want. Part of me wants to suck it up and get a more “updated” phone but really, all I do is talk and text and I don’t want to spend more $$ on the cell phone plan or the phone itself. Two weeks ago I was out shopping and the battery came loose and apparently fell out (I didn’t realize it until later). Well b/c I am ambivalent (and cheap) I asked one of my friends (who had a Rumor and had recently upgraded to a BB) if I could borrow the battery on the old Rumor. It was no problem, but here is the thing: my phone is black, hers was white…so I am walking around with a two-toned phone now! My sister says it’s like those cars that have a different colored door…HAHA!
LOL! Okay, you totally crack me up with your two-tone phone and your Roxy cell phone! But… I must say, my phone is missing a few buttons and I do not mind! It’s just not important to me (or you!) 🙂
I think I got my first cellphone around the year 2000, too. It was a Nokia and I bought an awesome iridescent cover for it. For a long time I was opposed to camera phones and I feel like flip phones are too flimsy so I kept that Nokia for awhile. Then it was another “bar” phone and then this awesome little tiny slider phone that I loved.
But then Jason REALLY wanted an iPhone and he talked me into one, too. So, yes, I switched from a slider phone with no camera to an iPhone. I LOVE having a smart phone. I’m sure I’m not using it to its fullest capacity but I love it anyway. But that doesn’t mean I want every single new one that comes out. No, mine works fine and I can’t see any huge advantages to changing phones every few years.
I love that you have so many photos of you guys in your wedding finery while on the phone! Hilarious!
I wish I had a pic of some of the awesome covers I had for my first Nokia phone!
I do think the iPhone rocks. Best out of all the smart phones I’ve seen!
Ha! All those photos are embarrassing!
I am usually late to the game when it comes to technology. Heck, I only got a lap top this year and that’s because I won it! And I waited to get an iPhone and now that I have it? I wish I had waited a few months more to get the newest version. I’m a texting junkie.
I was probably about 16 when I got my first phone and it was the LG Shine then last January I upgraded to one of the older Blackberry Curves. Now I’m saving my money so that I can buy out of my current contract and get the new Iphone. I’m SO sick of my Blackberry. It wouldn’t be so bad if it were one of the newer ones but it has the old ball to scroll with and it’s just.. not what I want. It’s messed up and won’t update and it also has a crack in the screen because I may have accidentally dropped it. I’m clumsy so I’m not sure how I’ll do with an Iphone in my hands but I want it anyways.
My new Tour has the roller ball still. I like it better than that little pad. BUT LET ME TELL YOU – the iPhone is 1000x easier to use and more straight forward, so I would go for it 🙂
I’m like you — I worry that I’ll be one of those old people who isn’t interested in new technology. I can’t be bothered. Thankfully, I’m married to a total nerd. He just got a Droid and loves it. I might get one when my contract is up due to his influence. Right now, I just have a little flip-phone. That’s all I’ve had since my first cell phone. I don’t think I got a cell phone until grad school. I was definitely older than 21. I’ve always been lame with things like that though. I still have cassette tapes.
Do you listen to these cassette tapes?!
I was 28 when I got my first cell phone (in 1992). I used to go to trade shows a lot (Comdex and CES) and the first year I went to CES, I saw so many people with cell phones that after I got home, I went out and got one. A beige Motorola flip phone that I paid almost $800 for. I used that phone for almost 3 years before I got a black Motorola Startac, which I paid almost $1200 for. Granted, this was the analog only, no texting just phone calls era of mobile phones. It wasn’t until 1997 that I got a digital phone (Ericsson) that I used for a couple of years (I only paid $250 for that phone). Today, I use a Palm Pre, in addition to having a pre-paid iPhone 3GS (which I use when I can’t get Sprint service and just to say I have an iPhone).
I think having a phone back in 1992 was a novelty, but I used the practicality of it right away. There were times that I needed to make phone calls over the place. All of the other trade shows I attended after I had a phone, I was able to get a lot done. And my bills showed it (average bill was around $400 a month) Today, I can’t be without my phone, except when I’m camping and when spending non-tech time with my wife and family.
Wow! Talk about cell phone history! I would love to see some of those older phones! But those bills?! OUCH!
I got my 1st cell the day before heading out on a lengthy cross country road trip, Oct. 30, 2002. (Weren’t we just talking about dates the other day? 😉 That’d make me 29 when I got it.
Still have it.
I like gadgets, I’m just not that into phones.
I think I was about 21 when I got my first cell phone — they definitely weren’t popular then the way they are now. In fact, even though I had a newer phone, it was still on the slightly big and clunky side, and didn’t have Caller ID or voicemail. (I feel so old writing this right now. :)) My mom bought it for me — in red, to match my car — in case I had car problems while driving to my college internship. Now a cell phone is the only phone I have (no more landline), but I’ve been pretty resistant to getting anything more than the standard phone that allows for calls and texting. I’m cheap AND I don’t need to be connected to the Web any more than I already am. I’d say the phone I have now is at least four years old, if not older.
Hrm, I was in my 20s. Cell phones were just starting to get popular in the early 2000s. I didn’t have one in college. People barely had computers in college so cell phones were totally nonexistent. I hardly used it but now? LOVE. I have an iPhone and adore it (while I find Apple to be a pain in general). I use it mostly for organizing my life and texting. It is so handy that I’m not sure why more people don’t have them (them being smartphones).
I think a lot of people don’t have smartphones because they don’t use technology that way. I definitely think it’s a younger generation thing.
And the data packages for them are so expensive!
Let me see……I was a sof in college. OLD. I always want the latest phone, but am always too cheap to actually get out there and get it.
I was literally planning on getting the iPhone this weekend but then there were more rumors of vzn getting it so I may hold off to see how that plays out. Decisions decisions…..
I might get one from Verizon if it actually happens too. The AT&T service Steven has on his iPhone works poorly where we live.
I got my first cell phone when I was 16 and I was definitely a late bloomer with this! I was one of the last of my friends and it was just a Samsung flip phone, but I was totally in love with it!
Now I have a Blackberry & I’m definitely on the smartphone bandwagon. I really love technology! Hehe. 🙂
The phone in the picture your brother took looks remarkably like my first phone!
I was, against my will, given a phone my senior year in college by my mother (so I was 20). I had no use for it on campus, and got frustrated when she expected to be able to get ahold of me more readily. I was still busy!
That being said, I then moved about 4 hours away and used my cell instead of a land-line, and found it very useful to have on the drives to and from home. I haven’t had a land-line since.
I have long resisted the sparkly new iPhone/-esque technologies, proclaiming left and right that I have no use for 24h access to the internet, and remained uninterested in owning a gadget just for its own sake. BUT I’VE CHANGED MY MIND! For whatever reason, I’ve been worn down by stories of all the awesomeness, and now I really, really want one! One thing I know I will find useful is the GPS feature – I’m terrible with directions and now that I’m driving a lot more to get to photoshoots, etc, I could really use one! Just waiting till my contract is up…