The Phone Age..The Life cycle of a Teenager's Cellphone

Hello readers. If you're expecting some travel and living documentary about the ergonomics and engineering of a cellphone then you're lost. This is definitely not the blog for you. This post is concerned with a very recent purchase that I made of a brand new phone (a certain HTC One series phone). So that got me thinking... why not write a blog post about our first phones and their slow transitions. I remember the days when I was in High School... Cell phones didn't really become a trend until we hit the 9th grade. That was when they became all the rage and those who owned one were the envy of others. Back in the days (the 1990s to be exact), only the rich kids owned a cellphone and cellphones that time were heavier that a brick (looked like a brick too) and they were the perfect revenge weapon (self defense too! Just give him one and he lands the top  spot in the emergency room). Trust me, for those who are unfortunate enough to be born in the 2000s, the phones were super huge! And the most popular brand was Nokia. For a little visual aid, just look at the monstrosity that we considered 'cool' back then!

These babies were thicker than some of our waistlines back then. It was ginormous! But being without one was like choosing to be a social pariah. That time my dad did not believe that "kids my age' (I was 12... -_-) should own cellphones (which didn't stop him from throwing his at our faces whenever he had the chance). His 'rational argument' was that, "Children like you should focus on your studies so that you can get into good collages after that. Not spend time SMSing your friends and boyfriends (he gave me a very evil eye at the word 'boyfriends')". Oh, Puh-lease dad! Like the college thing ended up great anyway. So during those two years, I was literally categorized into the social pariah group in the 7th and 8th grades. We were the sullen ones who mooned in the corner because we couldn't join into conversations that involved phrases like "text", "replied" or "credit".

Then from the 7th to 8th grade onwards it was all about camera-phones with high megapixels and that was when Sony Ericsson butted in and rocked Nokia's world. Everyone literally ran to the stores to purchase the latest phone with the highest megapixels and resolution (this was also the time that the "duck-face" photo pose was invented). The conversations transitioned from "He didn't text me today, what should I do?" to "How does this picture look?". All the social pariahs were now upgraded to loser status. Luckily for me and not so luckily for them, i officially resigned from the League of Extraordinary Social Inadequates and joined the League of Super Trendy Cellphone B*tches. Taking photos was the bomb! Everyone was so into it until it became an outdated thing and suddenly smartphones were the schizz.

And trust me, smartphones were not so great looking back in the days...they were large, bulky and weighed more than some of us these days. This was the time for Palm Pilot to shine. they were the biggest manufacturers of smartphones and they made teenagers around the world plenty happy. their Then Blackberry realized that they could also win this game... tenfold and so they cam,e up with their own version of the smartphone... one that allows another user of the same smartphone to chat for free, without any cost. Hence they devised the much thinner and more delectable QWERTY smartphones.Faster texting that is enough to outrun Usain Bolt and (finally) replying speed that is enough to give Michael Phelps a run for his money.

So then qwerty pads started to get annoying because they made this irritating clicking sound and they replaced it with the even more annoying touchscreen. the touchscreen then was not equivalent to the touchscreen now because the touchscreen then enabled teenage girls to outgrow their nails so they can be long enough to tap the screen with. This resulted in the threshold of annoyance, the redundant tip-tap-tip of girls on their cellphones. I believe this was also when O.P.I Nail Lacquer companies made their profits. Then loudmouth mothers and annoyed fathers complained to the phone companies and they finally came up with non-nail-responsive touchscreen phones (aka. they were more silent). They were also admittedly thinner, faster and kept you connected to the world!

So I believe that smartphones are not only a liability but they have made our generation-and I quote in meme terms- le stupid. Instead of making communications easier they have made our wallets emptier and our Facebook/Twitter/Instagram/Kik more annoying. But still... who doesn't want a phone that is way smarter than them, eh?

And that, kids is how the mobile phone has evolved throughout time. Thank you all for tuning into the Tech Savvy and the Technology Illiterate show! I'm your host Jenny and we'll see you in a few days!

xx