On March 5, 1919, cartoonist W.K. Haselden published a comic in the British newspaper The Mirror, illustrating what the world would be like if telephones were portable.
Jokes on them, no one uses cell phones for calling people anymore.
“Haha, so true”, I think to myself, as I sit and stare at my phone
Yea I never answer my phone because its always spam. Family will text first.
I don’t remember ever getting a spam call. When people call, it’s usually important.
Maybe get a new number and don’t give your number out to everyone
This is alright to a point but it’s not always spam.
Like when you’ve applied for a rental property, or a job, or whatever. At that point the phone calls need to be answered.
Because it isn’t always spam. I get calls about work regularly and my phone # is posted online and I get maybe 1 spam call a week. The rest are legit. In my business, we only call people when it’s time sensitive, so if the phone rings it needs an answer.
It’s just childish to ignore all phone calls. Especially from those in your contact list
I get at least two spam calls a day so, outside of calls from my contact list, I ignore everything. If it’s an important and time sensitive thing, they need to leave me a message because cold calls from random strings of numbers don’t get returned.
Buckaroo, we all lead different lives.
I have to look out for calls from my doctor, and shit like that. But I probably didn’t answer a phone call between the ages of 22 and 25.
No one owes anyone else to answer their personal phone.
Got a work phone? Ha, that sucks. Go ahead. Answer every ring.
I genuinely can’t remember what my ringtone is. Haven’t had it on in years.
Must be the same as mine - bzzz bzzz bzzz
I feel like with the 90s style having their comeback right now the kids are missing this angle.
Surely with the 90s coming back, everyone’s phone has to play the doodooloo doodooloo doodooloo tune.
I have mine silenced but turned emergency bypass on for my parents/brother
On iOS it’s contact card > edit > ringtone > emergency bypass
I have genuine PTSD whenever I hear my ringtone. So I just put my phone on vibrate mode lmao
Mines the song “war of borders” from wastleand 2, which is probably the single most agressive ringtone one can have.
I like this one for an alarm.
I haven’t set one since before the pixel 1. I’m on pixel 7 now
Interesting that he could imagine pocket telephones, but not a way of silencing them
Well, a physical bell made them ring, it’s not like the phones of the time had the ability to silence them. One novel concept at a time lmao
I would think you could disconnect the ringing solenoid with a switch. But maybe the comic is taking about forgetting to turn them off?
I don’t remember an obvious way to turn off a phone’s ring back in the days when everyone had a land line. The best you could do is have your answering machine pick up after one ring if it had that option and maybe it would be fast enough to do it in less than one ring.
I got to wondering what sort of social proliferation the telephone managed to achieve in England by 1919. Nothing exhaustive, but this is what I’ve found:
By the 1930s, it was common for affluent homes in the UK to have their own telephones, with networks spreading far enough for calls to be made across several cities. The majority of callers continued to use local phone boxes or pay phones until the 1950s and 60s, when improvements in home phone technology made systems cheaper and more easily available.
Ref: https://www.italktelecom.co.uk/blog/a-brief-history-of-the-home-telephone
1918
Leeds automatic telephone exchange was opened on 18 May in Basinghall Street - a Strowger-type manufactured and installed by the Automatic Telephone Manufacturing Company. It was the largest of its kind in Europe, equipped for 6,800 lines with an ultimate capacity of 15,000, and the first exchange in this country capable of being extended to give service to 100,000 subscribers. It was also the first in which the caller was required to dial five figures for every local call.
Ref: https://www.britishtelephones.com/histuk.htm
So for a cartoonist to be able to imagine having a personal phone at all in 1919, let alone a portable one, is pretty interesting. Maybe missed their calling as a sci-fi writer/illustrator :)
Hitler do be gettin into shenanigans with his mobile telephone.
Hitler is the reason that style is no longer worn. Some say it is his second greatest achievement, only being overshadowed by his greatest achievement killing Hitler.
Yeah, but he also killed the guy that killed Hitler.
I think they were going for a Charlie Chaplin style.
Damn, I looked it up and never realized that Charlie Chaplin and Hitler were born just 4 days apart. Chaplin lived a lot longer, though!
nailed it
I miss the comics from a hundred years ago that were always posted on /r/comicstriphistory
No time like the present to make the community!
TING, TING, TING!
Vintage c/phonesarebad.
Ok, but why so much compression artifacts?
It was first published to Facebook in 1919, you don’t expect it to hold up all this time do you?
This is the actual prediction.
I just sent this to my buddy on his mobile. Then i realized that his phone went ting. Ironic.
What is up with that baby?
Severe case of longcatitis
It’s common for mites
Who would not cry if your dad is Hitler.
Jealous of the dad’s new phone. It’s a flip fold.
deleted by creator
mf really said your doohickey is frightening this here mite
