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Weekend Open Forum: At what age did you get your first cell phone?
I grew up in a time when landlines were the primary means of voice communication. Sure there were cell phones in the early ‘90s but they were typically reserved for business executives and the wealthy. The pager (or beeper) was the go-to device for getting in touch with people on the go through most of my teenage years.
My first cell phone was a Nokia 5110 that I got when I was 18, arguably the most popular handset at the time due to the fact that you could buy aftermarket faceplates, frames, batteries and antennas to create a look that was uniquely your own – something that seemed immensely important in high school. What’s more, few people my age had mobile phones at the time which made owning one that much more attractive.
With this week’s open forum, we want to know how old you were when you got your first cell phone and what kind of phone it was (if you remember).
User Comments: 71
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yRaz said:
I was 18, 2 months from graduating. Not that I really cared. I noticed all my friends' parents calling them while we were off getting in trouble. Inconvenient, but it certainly had its advantages
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rocklerpark said:
I'm 29, my first one was a Motorola microtac lite 2, when I was 16 indica 1999. My best friend had a Motorola startac at the same time in high school. My second was a Nokia 6120, great times!
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baN893 said:
I was 10 in 2000, I got a Nokia 3330
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In 1990, when I was 21.
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Skidmarksdeluxe said:
I was in my 30's in the 90's and I was one of the first 3000 people in South Africa to own a cell phone due to my position in the IT industry. It was a Motorola 5200 with a (read heavy) extended battery. I thought I was the bees knees.
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T77 said:
I got mine when I was 17, it was a sony-ericsson S302. It's kept in front of me on the table right now! Until then I used to play around with an old nokia.
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TS-56336 said:
I used my first phone, the Nokia 3310 when I was 6. Look at me now. :P
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Zeutrinox said:
8, Motorola.
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1 person liked this |I used my first phone, the Nokia 3310 when I was 6. Look at me now. :pDoes that mean you are are, or aren't, prettier than your avatar....?I was in my 30's in the 90's and I was one of the first 3000 people in South Africa to own a cell phone due to my position in the IT industry. It was a Motorola 5200 with a (read heavy) extended battery. I thought I was the bees knees.OK, you know you have to link us a picture of one of those! Cause I'm getting mental images of Austin Powers with a separate hand set walkie talkie type affair like you see in WWII movies.
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Hassan Al Rawi said:
Got mine when I was 18 years old , it was nokia 3310
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Lokalaskurar said:
I got my first one at age 13, a Sony Ericsson J230i. Almost regretted having it; the only calls I got were from my parents trying to find out where I was.
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Around 11 years ago when I was 18 or 19.
A Nokia 3350.
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They don't allow me a 'phone in my cell.
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1 person liked this |NTAPRO said:
Uh, I'm sixty four, and I still refuse to own one......Am I still allowed to post to this thread...?
Go for the retro nokia model with that snake game
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Buster Keaton said:
OK all you "kids". My first cell phone was one I had put in my car. It consisted of a handset wired to a cradle that mounted on the transmission tunnel. The cradle had a huge bundle of wiring that had to then be snaked under the carpet, under the carpet trim by the door, all the way back into the trunk. That wiring harness led to a large finned box that had to be mounted on the trunk floor. Then, the antenna was mounted on the back window. Finally, in those days, if you got reception for more than a block at a time, you were lucky.
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LNCPapa said:
I got my own first cell phone when I was 29. My wife, who was then my girlfriend, had one when I was 23. I was still using pagers back then.
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Am 53 and my first phone was a motorola T191 in 2002. Very cool then
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Ronald Yates said:
13, It was a Christmas present. Had no color, it was that famous green background, with black blocky text. Lasted forever though! Other's had color screens, this was a free phone, but unlike kids today, I was just happy to have a cell phone.. Now 10 year olds have iphones.. My younger brothers (8 years younger) got phones before they were 13, but they were regular phones.. nothing fancy.
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I'm still using my first cell phone, Sony Ericsson w300i, which I got for 5~6 years now.
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I think the Nokia 5110 was the second phone I had when I was 17. I got my first phone at 16 (joys of working for a family business!) and found it to be near on indestructible, A car accident about a week after passing my test in July 1999 finally ended its life.
I don't for the life of me remember the model number of the Nokia phone in question but I do recall it having a flexible pull-up aerial you extended from the stubby housing (kinda like the Nokia 5110 but with a pull-up extension) to help with signal, and the corners were very squarish. No idea on model number or any other features as it spent its life in a leather case.
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OK all you "kids". My first cell phone was one I had put in my car. It consisted of a handset wired to a cradle that mounted on the transmission tunnel. The cradle had a huge bundle of wiring that had to then be snaked under the carpet, under the carpet trim by the door, all the way back into the trunk. That wiring harness led to a large finned box that had to be mounted on the trunk floor. Then, the antenna was mounted on the back window. Finally, in those days, if you got reception for more than a block at a time, you were lucky.
I never had one, but my parents did when I was in high school.
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Think I was 14 and it was a Motorola brick. Weighed about 2kg, enabled 3 lines of text, each consisting of 12 characters and if you didn't like someone you could leave a message on the screen and lob it through their window.
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Was about 45, a Sony Erricson, and I still have it and it still works.
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Nokia 1011 year 1998 my first was 2de hand
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I think I was quite young when I got mine. Must have been about 14. It was that big huge Motorola thing. Actually I think it was one of the first popular commercial phones. I had one of those silly pager things before. Didn't really know how to use it, just thought it looked cool. By the way please check out my new blog techtimemachine.blogspot.co.uk
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