Blessing, curse. Life-saver, distraction and killer. The mobile phone turns 40 today:
The mobile phone industry reached a significant milestone today - turning 40 years old.
Telecoms engineer Martin Cooper made what is widely regarded as the world's first mobile call from a prototype Motorola DynaTAC in downtown New York on April 3, 1973.
The other day I was thinking about how cell phones had changed so many things. Recently I went to the airport to pick someone up and the place was jammed. Not all that long ago that scenario was somewhere between stressful and a nightmare. Now a quick cell phone call and I knew exactly when and what door to go to. There are so many conveniences like that, big and small, that we now take for granted.
The mobile phone has also saved countless lives. Once upon a time, kids, we had to find an actual wired phone to summon help, and depending on the circumstances it could be blocks or even miles away. True story!
There's the flip side too, of course. Deaths from distracted driving. The expectation of being connected and available 24/7. The sometimes enormous price of getting a little wild and crazy now when everybody has a cell phone, and every cell phone has a camera and can upload to the internet in the blink of an eye.
I'd say mobile phones have been very good to us, though there has been a price to pay. But that's almost always the case, isn't it?
Happy Birthday, Mobile Phone!
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