Can you believe the average teen texts about 200 times a day? Divide that into a 16-hour day and you end up with one text every five minutes.  Not long ago, the social life of a teenager was quite different. Before 2000, there were no cameras on phones, no internet on phones, and not even texting.  Now that’s all people do. Many young teens and younger kids pay more attention to cell phones than they do to their homework. Everyone always wants to know what’s going on and always wants to be social.

Way before the 2000’s, you would have to send letters through the mail to communicate with others far away.  Also, information about people traveled rather slowly. Nowadays, as soon as someone does something wrong or good it’s out in public within seconds because of cell phones and/or social media.  Almost 37% of teens check their mobile device every 30 minutes or even more often. Back then, when you wanted to go on a date you had to ask in person.  Now more than 20% of people ask people on dates over text. There were no cell phones before 1990 but now they've taken over. The question is whether our texting, playing online games with people throughout the world, or making and breaking up with best friends is being abused by kids?

The year of 1973 was the year that saw our freedom from landlines and telephone booths.  That year the first cell phone, a Motorola built by a team led by Martin Cooper, was tested and used.  It cost thousands of dollars, and even though the technology may seem clunky to people who grew up with phones that could fit snugly in their palm, the first model was a breakthrough. Since it was both expensive and new, the first cell phone became a status symbol in the way that the latest iPhone or Android model might be today.

Old phones were incapable of games. It wasn’t really seen as a purpose for phones at that time. The games we play on today’s smart phones, which require both internet connectivity and advanced video processing capabilities, would be impossible to play back then.

Before 1976, phone batteries lasted 3-4 days. Now they last 3-4 hours. This reason was because there was not a lot to do on those cell phones.  Also, people can drop old phones down three flights of stairs and they won’t break, but if they drop these Smartphones out of their pocket down to the floor, it will crack the whole screen and they might not even be able to use it. If they’re not picky, people can use the phones from then still now, but the phones that are made now, can only be used realistically for a maximum of four years. You always have to update it or fix something wrong with it. Some changes are pretty obvious –size and weight shrunk enormously.  Phones back then weighed around 790 grams.  The phones now weigh about 95-112 grams. The memory was a lot different too because the old phones can only hold 30 or fewer contacts.  Now, you can have over 5,000 pictures and as many contacts as you need.  It all depends on how much space the SIM card has.

Old cell phones had wires and couldn’t go far with them, but now they’re wireless and can go anywhere you want. The camera quality these days is so clear on the Smartphones that it looks like you’re standing right in front of the object you photographed.  The first camera was made in 1913.  Now high quality cameras are built into our phones.

Today, people can’t go out anywhere without checking their phone.  Go out to eat and they don’t even talk to the company they’re with.  They’re all about their phone.  It’s pretty sad because no one really worries about anything besides their phones and what’s on them.  Phones ruin many things.  Relationships are an example because one out of two partners pays more attention to their phone than his/her partner and that person thinks he/she is talking to someone else or doing something they’re not supposed to be doing.

Many people think 30 years from now phones will be much bigger. Also, they think that because now our addictions to our phone is really bad, imagine what that addiction will be like in the future.  Phones are going to be more important than getting a shower soon enough.