Nowadays, imagining spending a whole day without using our phone, seems almost impossible for many people. Not because we are all truly dependent on it, but because today it feels as if it were an extension of our own limbs. This is especially true for young people who have never known a different reality. However, it is important to remember that not long ago there was a time when people lived their daily lives without using any portable phone, simply because they had not yet been invented.
For this reason, many young people today ask their parents or grandparents a simple question: what was life like without a phone?
In most cases, the answer is extremely positive. They describe a more natural life, a slower, calmer and more peaceful life. A life that did not move so fast and that did not require people to be constantly connected, because this continuous connection often ends up turning into a real detachment from reality.
But let us look more concretely at what life was like without phones. Fifty years ago, children went out to play in their neighborhood every day, and having social interactions was not only encouraged but completely normal.
To receive calls, or to make them, people used the home phone, a landline. Therefore, if no one was at home, it was obviously impossible to answer. As a result, the person had to call again later, hoping to reach you when you were finally at home.
At the entrances of supermarkets, schools, or town halls, there were often large notice boards where people posted various announcements, all written by hand. If someone was looking for a small job, they would write an announcement and stick it up; if someone was looking for work, they would do the same. People who needed help with school, or those who had lost something or a pet, would also write a notice by hand and attach it to the board, hoping that someone would read it.
In a way, these notice boards could be compared to today’s doomscrolling: before entering shops or public buildings, many people would stop for a few minutes to read the announcements and see what the community needed.
Our brains also benefited from this life: we used to memorize much more information such as street directions or phone numbers (as there were no GPS or digital notes). In addition, knowledge was sought in libraries and bound books, the Internet wasn’t there to give us answers for every question.
Television programs also had very specific schedules. If you missed an episode, you had to wait until the following weekend to watch it again. For young people, one of the best moments of the day was the afternoon spent at the arcade playing video games, which were obviously very different from the ones that today are easily available to everyone, even very young children. At that time you had to wait in line and spend some coins, but those afternoons were still memorable.
From all of this, it is fair to draw a conclusion: sometimes we need to disconnect from our phones, because life should be lived in a concrete way, with our hearts and minds directed toward reality.
S.L 5
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