MOTOROLA’ S DYNATAC
IBM’s SIMON
Seeing how my nine and thirteen-year-old grandchildren are attached to their cell phones has me concerned. The sophisticated miniature computers they text with have taken over their lives. They spend hours playing games and communicating with friends they’ve never met. The phone keeps them up until the early morning hours and affects their school work and my interaction with them since they sleep till one or two in the afternoon. I wish Vancouver schools would ban their use during classes like districts are doing nationwide.
Mobile phones were invented in the early 1940s by AT&T engineers as two-way radios that allowed taxi drivers and emergency services to communicate. William Rae Young at Bell Labs was the first to suggest the concept behind the cellular mobile phone system through cell towers. By 1947, there was cell phone service between New York and Boston, but it was a failure due to interference. The first mass-produced handheld phone was sold in 1973, but it wasn’t until the Motorola DynaTac in 1985, known as “the brick,” ushered in a new era of handheld communication devices. Their invention was exciting.
Nine years later, engineers and administrators from eleven European countries gathered to consider whether a digital cellular phone system was technically and politically possible. Their conference laid the foundation for an international standard. IBM’s Simon Personal Communicator hit the market in 1994 with a touchscreen that allowed consumers to call and receive faxes and emails. With a price tag of $1,099, it sold 50,000 units in its first six months. But it wasn’t until 1997 that the term smartphone was coined, and mobile gaming was introduced with a game called Snake. Today’s gaming industry is worth over $152 billion.
The ringtone, launched in 1998 in Finland, was the first downloadable content sold to mobile phone users. Emojis were invented in Japan a year later, the same year the Blackberry was unveiled. Blackberry was famous for its easy-to-use e-mail service. That’s when I got into the market, feeling a need to have it for my business. It kept me connected to the office and my employees like never before. The Blackberry may have instigated the addiction to mobile phones today.
Technological changes evolved rapidly. By 2000, the Nokia 3310 had sold 126 million units. In 1999, the first commercially available camera phone was launched in Japan, with restrictions that it was only used in the country. Sharp introduced one in 2000, but the images could have been clearer. The phone and camera were two separate devices in the same housing. When the first 3G network appeared in 2001, mobile phones connected to the internet, it might surprise you to hea Nepal was one of the early Asian countries to launch 3G services in 2003.
When Apple’s iPhone debuted 2007 for $499, Nokia executives said it wouldn’t dent its market share. But it was revolutionary with its touch screen, ability to download apps, GPS, camera, iPod, and internet access and became a turning point for the smartphone industry. T-Mobile, the first Android phone with Google’s operating system, hit the market the following year. Android systems were cheaper than iPhones, opening the market to more customers. These innovations were followed by WhatsApp in 2009, which allowed customers to send and receive calls and messages over the internet. Today’s WhatsApp messaging system has 1.2 billion users sending over 10 billion messages daily.
Progress continued. 4G was introduced in 2009, and a year later, Samsung’s Galaxy S smartphone usurped former Android giants. Though text messages arrived in 2012, using them took a while. Then, the Pokemon Go app launched worldwide, a game that used a smartphone camera to show Pokemon characters in the real world. The totem pole beside my house became a site for frequent visitors.
In 2017, the Nokia 331 was equipped with basic web browsing, a colorful screen, and a camera. Its super-long battery life made it one of the year’s biggest hits. That same year, Apple eliminated the physical home button. The first 5G phones and fifth-generation network debuted in 2019, allowing smartphones to have 198MP cameras.
Nowadays, people are glued to their phones wherever they go. They put them on the table while dining in restaurants. They surf the web researching products and services, read the news, and purchase gifts with their phone. To exist in the world requires you to be mobile savvy. The question in my mind is, at what price? Over three billion people worldwide use cell phones. What do they give up by becoming addicted, and how do you know if you are one of them?
When a person uses their cell phone most of the time and cannot cut back on its use, it’s a problem. The cause is often an indication of boredom, anxiety, or depression. National Institute of Health studies show that when the phones of addicted people are out of reach, their behavior becomes stressful. This is especially true with adolescents, where it is associated with sleep deprivation and has many of the same results as alcohol addiction. The Surgeon General says teens who spend more than three hours a day on social media double the risk to their mental health. Dysfunctional usage of cell phones is associated with low emotional stability, chronic stress, anger, and depression. Communication suffers. Texting short replies doesn’t promote deep discussions or tell you the emotional condition of the messenger.
Mobile phones emit low radiation levels, though whether it causes cancer or promote accelerated growth of existing tumors remains questionable. When held against your ear, it heats a localized area of your face and brain, though not by much of a problem if its use isn’t extensive. If you are concerned about radiation, keep mobile phone calls short, use a hands-free kit, don’t carry the phone close to your body when switched on, use a landline when possible, and choose a model with a low absorption rate. Driving while using a mobile device, however, significantly increases the risk of a traffic accident.
More research is needed on cell phone use and its effect on society. Since it’s known that obsessive use can cause physical and psychological damage, be cautious, especially with children. Cell phones should never be used as a substitute for a babysitter, physical activity, or face-to-face communication.
Are cell phones a problem in your home? Are they allowed at the dining room table? Please share your experience on my blog site. (http://%20www.echingerfineart.com/blog)
Art is always for sale. For information about Static Interference, contact me at marilynne@eichiungerfineart.com (mailto:marilynne@eichiungerfineart.com).
Murder, deceit, kidnappings, robberies. Read what happens when corporate greed sets terrible things in motion, and it takes a hero to set things right.
Available online at Amazon (https://www.amazon.com/Books-Marilynne-Eichinger/s?rh=n:283155,p_27:Marilynne%20Eichinger%20), Barnes and Noble (https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-water-factor-marilynne-eichinger/1145541899), Powells Books (https://www.powells.com/searchresults?keyword=The%20Water%20Facator%20by%20Marilynne%20Eichinger), and locally at Annie Blooms Bookstore in Multnomah Village.a
References:
Alli, R. (2023) History of mobile phones and the first mobile phone. Uswitch. Retrieved from https://www.uswitch.com/mobiles/guides/history-of-mobile-phones/
website.( 2024) Tracking the most important innovations in mobile phone technology. PUrplegator. Retrieved from https://purplegator.com/blog/mobile-phone-history/
Twenge, J. (2017) Have smartphones destroyed a generation? The Atlantic. REtrieved from https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2017/09/has-the-smartphone-destroyed-a-generation/534198/
McNutt,R. (2019) Cell phone addiction and psychological a physiological health in adolescents. National Institute of Health. Retrieved from https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6449671/
