Post by @ajroach42@retro.social

2026-09-17 14:42 UTC

Telephones are a really interesting case that end up in a similar situation to Cars, but for different reasons. Many people loved the concept of the telephone and were eager to use it. Public phones and communal phones and the phone as a replacement for the telegraph were all pretty popular. But private ownership of telephones resulted in a major upset of etiquette and an erosion of the separation between home and public, an encroachment. Many people of the day resented that. I've never know a world without a telephone, but I knew one without a cellphone. I miss being unreachable. The telephone was, ultimately, more good than harm. The cellphone (though perhaps not the smartphone) probably the same. But I can absolutely understand how and why some people would have been resistant to it. I still know people without cellphones, I knew people without a phone of any kind not that long ago ("Write me a letter or come over. If it's not important enough to tell me in person, it can wait on the post")

Replies (2)

@ajroach42@retro.social 2026-09-17 14:45

(telephone sidebar: The advent of the telephone coincided with a serious reduction in mail service, which had previously run as often as 4x a day in large cities, and generally resulted in the further isolation of people from their communities (even as it enabled people to connect to new communities!) I think the telephone is good, and I'm glad that it reached widespread adoption, and I think it would have done so regardless. But I also love to think about what adoption of the telephone, or the cellphone, might have looked like if there was less money to be made in monopolizing the system. It's a useless thought experiment, but it compels me.)

Open ##4992458
@aisling@critters.gay 2026-09-17 17:36

@ajroach42@retro.social the smartphone did in fact have to be forced on me in that i continued to use a flip phone until my job forced me to buy a smart phone in order to use their scheduling app

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