tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3164556861454970487.post4424925036393127244..comments2023-10-08T05:00:23.559-04:00Comments on Clarissa's Blog: When Was the First Time You Used the Internet and the Cell Phone?Clarissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11027134365260069910noreply@blogger.comBlogger9125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3164556861454970487.post-35218824683426393422010-10-25T16:11:04.478-04:002010-10-25T16:11:04.478-04:00"the idea of being constantly accessible by p..."the idea of being constantly accessible by phone makes me tired. Talking on the phone is hard for me, so I don't like being ambushed by phone calls when I'm trying to do something else."<br /><br />-I understand you 100%. I use the phone to read e-mails and moderate blog posts. Otherwise, the phone is permanently on mute, which everybody knows by now. So I only make calls if I feel like it. :-)Clarissahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11027134365260069910noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3164556861454970487.post-41574484827073169622010-10-25T16:08:08.138-04:002010-10-25T16:08:08.138-04:00I don't remember the first time I used the Int...I don't remember the first time I used the Internet, but I do remember when I first got a cell phone.<br /><br />It was in my last year of college, fall of 2005. I was living on my own in an apartment, and my mom found that a cell phone was cheaper than getting me a land line.<br /><br />I have never liked cell phones, because of the expectation that you always carry it with you. I don't do that --- the idea of being constantly accessible by phone makes me tired. Talking on the phone is hard for me, so I don't like being ambushed by phone calls when I'm trying to do something else. So I leave my cell phone at home, and essentially treat it as a land line even though it's a cell phone.Lindsayhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10860246538349067232noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3164556861454970487.post-33412405171730391702010-10-25T14:00:44.608-04:002010-10-25T14:00:44.608-04:00I first used the internet via someone else's e...I first used the internet via someone else's email account to submit an abstract for a conference talk in early 1986, if I recall correctly. I had forgotten about the abstract, and realized it was due too late to send it by mail. I did not get an email account myself until, I think, 1992, although most of my colleagues in my department had it in the late 1980's. I was stubborn and did not see the point of it.<br /><br />I got a cellphone in 1996 when I was missing lunch dates with a friend who could not reach me when I was already on my way. She pleaded with me to get one. I kept the same analog cellphone for ten years: No text message capability and 30 minutes per month talking. If I went over that, it was, if I recall correctly, a dollar a minute.<br /><br />I had to get a new phone in 2006, since I could not get a replacement battery for the old one, and it would only allow me to talk for about four or five minutes per charge and then required all night to recharge. I still have a pretty inexpensive plan which costs me less than $40/month. Roaming in Mexico is still ninety-nine cents a minute, though.Pagan Topologisthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01611788563582362688noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3164556861454970487.post-65452216128507086902010-10-25T01:17:04.370-04:002010-10-25T01:17:04.370-04:00I got on to BBSs in 1988, and by 1990 they were ga...I got on to BBSs in 1988, and by 1990 they were gating some Usenet newsgroups, so i could say that that was when I started using the Internet. Our university startted doing it in a limited way in 1992, but in that period all international internet traffic to the rest of the world was gated via Fidonet and a single 9600 bps modem line between Grahamstown and Oregon - not a lot of bandwidth to play with. <br /><br />Got my first cell phone in 2001 when I was asked to help a student get a visa to study in Kenya, and had to call the office at each step -- going back home to make a phone call, or looking of an unvandalised public phone wasted too much time, and convinced me that a cell phone would be better.Steve Hayeshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11283123400540587033noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3164556861454970487.post-8600521959731210892010-10-24T23:03:56.289-04:002010-10-24T23:03:56.289-04:00E-mail in 1995, dialup connection like you, simila...E-mail in 1995, dialup connection like you, similar experience including phone issue, this in New Orleans although I soon got a specially dedicated phone line for it which solved it. It was magical, yes.<br /><br />E-mail had existed since the 80s but only for professors and my university didn't have it yet to my department when I got it at home ... they got it the next year ... true geeks would go to the computer center and e-mail before that but I wasn't one. The first time anyone got a computer good enough to put a web browser on it was around the same time and that was when I saw the Internet and I was amazed. <br /><br />Cell phones, I have one but keep forgetting about it. First one I saw was really funny, in New Orleans, this guy on roller skates, skating around in a skating suit and helmet and ALSO talking on the phone, he looked like a person in a sci-fi film.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3164556861454970487.post-68922466261330126382010-10-24T21:54:13.891-04:002010-10-24T21:54:13.891-04:00Thank you, sweetie. Now I know who'd to be bla...Thank you, sweetie. Now I know who'd to be blamed for the addiction. :-)Clarissahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11027134365260069910noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3164556861454970487.post-89398108490328453962010-10-24T20:20:08.847-04:002010-10-24T20:20:08.847-04:00This is hilarious! I had completely forgotten how ...This is hilarious! I had completely forgotten how opposed you were to cell phones! haha you were also afraid you would never figure it out!!! Until I finally took the risk and got you that dark blue one, which you had to accept instead of offending me. & then you got hooked!<br /><br />the first time I saw a cell phone was in the beginning of the nineties when some people had those mobile phones that could only work in the vicinity of their cars or something of the sortAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3164556861454970487.post-18279886037915912042010-10-24T16:06:27.792-04:002010-10-24T16:06:27.792-04:00Oh, I just wanted to add that even today there rea...Oh, I just wanted to add that even today there really aren't any sites on the internet that really quite rival the depth and breadth of discussion and community that existed on the best BBSes in the 1980s. Not sure what to make of that.<br /><br />-MikeAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3164556861454970487.post-84226303324726987342010-10-24T16:03:49.349-04:002010-10-24T16:03:49.349-04:00I first used the internet in 1986 or so. It was mu...I first used the internet in 1986 or so. It was much different then. No browsers, mostly universities. It was for a class project in the smart-people class. We used it to talk to another class in Sweden.<br /><br />Most of the time in that era, I just used <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bulletin_board_system" rel="nofollow">BBSes</a>, which were much superior to the internet then.<br /><br />The first time I saw a cell phone in person was around 1987. It was huge, and my grandfather (a traffic engineer) brought it home from work. I wasn't allowed to use it, as it cost like $3 a minute or something similarly insane.<br /><br />I didn't have my own internet connection until 1995, though, that I paid for myself.<br /><br />-MikeAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com