Cell phones have come a long away in the past decade!
I got my first cell phone about 10 years ago. I had just turned 16 and gotten my license and my parents decided to add me onto their cell phone plan so I could have a cell phone of my own to use in the event of an emergency - they didn't want to take a chance on me, a cute young teenage girl, getting in accident or breaking down somewhere by myself with no way to call for help. Or if I was out at a school or church function and would be getting home late, I could call and let them know so they wouldn't be worrying about me. I was in high school - an upperclassman - and more and more kids in my school started getting basic cell phones around this age for basically the same reasons.
The first phone I got was a Nokia as we were with US Cellular back then, and it looked a lot the 5190 model. I didn't do a whole lot on it - we had a set amount of minutes to share among me and my parents so for actual conversations with people I just used the house phone, using my cell phone for quite 1 or 2 minute phone calls. Texting was unheard of back then - I don't recall anyone texting back then, to be honest - and taking pictures with your phone was a rare feature to have.
It did come with the "snake game" - a digital phone game where using the keypad, you move the little snake (which was represented by a line) around the screen, "eating" the little dots that popped up, but avoiding running into the edges of the screen or parts of the "snake" itself as once you ate a dot, the snake would grow a new segment. I believe the more you ate, not only the bigger did you grow but the faster it went too (or maybe that was one of the modes you could play in). I really enjoyed that game and I believe I nearly drained my battery several times playing it in my free time! The LG flip phone I got in college didn't have this game and I was very disappointed.
It also came with a basic plain navy blue cover on the front and back that was kinda boring. Vendors caught on though and they made TONS of different, cheap covers for this type of phone so you could personalize it and make more "you." I found a black cover with a blue flame design on it (blue flames were kinda my thing in high school and early college) out at the mall and had to buy it.
For being my first phone, it was decent - it did what I needed it to do, which was to carry around with me in case of emergencies when I wasn't at home and make quick calls when needed.
Do you remember your first cell phone? How old were you when you got it?
I didn't get my first cell phone until four years ago, for my 21st birthday. It was my only birthday present that year from my parents, and it was the free phone you could get with adding a person onto the family plan. It didn't have a camera, or internet access, or anything special. I loved telling people my parents had gotten me a free phone as my only birthday present, but of course the fact they were paying for the plan made it not exactly free.
ReplyDeleteWe were slow in my family to adopt cell phones. By the time I got to college, it felt like everyone had them but me. My little brother had it the worst. He said that sometimes his friends wouldn't call him to invite him to do things because he didn't have a cell phone, so they'd have to call his home phone number and risk getting the parents (oh horror!). Funny how what was 10 years ago mostly unavoidable (calling friends' home phone numbers) is now seen as something to avoid at all costs.