This was one of those things I always wanted at the time, but never ended up getting an equivalent before its day was over. By the mid '90s, I remember everyone who was more than a year or two older than me had them. Although I didn't really need one yet myself, when I was around 13, I was telling people I wondered when I would and figured it'd be pretty cool to have. But it never happened. Instead I got my mom's old cell phone in 1998 (by then, it was an old-school clunker from a couple years earlier that got me some chuckles, but all I cared was that it worked!).

Even though some people used beepers as late as 2003, they were definitely dying in the late '90s or were basically just a cheap, secondary thing.



Yeah, I remember seeing alot of pagers in the mid/late '90s(up until about 1998 or so). Nobody that I knew had one(nobody at school had one because we were still little kids, and my parents weren't really the type to have a pager), but you would still see alot of them around.

Yeah, I remember seeing alot of pagers in the mid/late '90s(up until about 1998 or so). Nobody that I knew had one(nobody at school had one because we were still little kids, and my parents weren't really the type to have a pager), but you would still see alot of them around.


I have TV footage recorded in 1998 that still has pager commercials (it was definitely dying then, and more something people just used in a secondary way, because cell phones weren't yet household). Around the Y2K era, alot of people called them "so Middle School" lol. I think adults and older teens had cells, while pagers were more commonly a backup thing, or for people under about 15.

BTW, I find it funny and ironic that I missed the Beeper craze on both sides! I was just a teeny bit too young to have them when they were cool and for older people around 1995, and a little too old to have them when they were for kids around 2000. ;D

there's a scene in the haskell wexler movie "medium cool" which shows a pager from around 1967. they've been around longer than you'd think! i assume they were colossally expensive back then, though, and probably didn't work that well.

also the movie the passenger shows VCRs from circa the mid 70s. i always think of them as an early 80s invention. i love stuff like that. turns out the VCR was actually invented in the 50s! but it took that long for them to become affordable.

there's a scene in the haskell wexler movie "medium cool" which shows a pager from around 1967. they've been around longer than you'd think! i assume they were colossally expensive back then, though, and probably didn't work that well.

also the movie the passenger shows VCRs from circa the mid 70s. i always think of them as an early 80s invention. i love stuff like that. turns out the VCR was actually invented in the 50s! but it took that long for them to become affordable.



Pagers in the '60s, and VCR's in the '50s! I had no idea they were that old :o

VHS and Beta VCRs both came out in the late '70s. The VCRs of the '50s and '60s used like an open reel format (so they really were Video Tape recorders) and were not used by the general public much as far as I know.

VHS and Beta VCRs both came out in the late '70s. The VCRs of the '50s and '60s used like an open reel format (so they really were Video Tape recorders) and were not used by the general public much as far as I know.
i think the format in the passenger was a huge tape format that predated VHS and beta and was strictly for professional film and TV labs. thanks for the info.

VHS and Beta VCRs both came out in the late '70s. The VCRs of the '50s and '60s used like an open reel format (so they really were Video Tape recorders) and were not used by the general public much as far as I know.



Yeah, I checked it out on wikipedia and they've both been around for awhile. Alot of stuff is older than I realized. Like, for example, I didn't know that the first 'video game' was actually created in 1947 :o

My mom has one, she probally finds it to be really annoying.  ;D

I actually had a pager for a little bit in the late 90s, they were already pretty dead by that time. I had a cell phone too lol.

I have TV footage recorded in 1998 that still has pager commercials (it was definitely dying then, and more something people just used in a secondary way, because cell phones weren't yet household). Around the Y2K era, alot of people called them "so Middle School" lol. I think adults and older teens had cells, while pagers were more commonly a backup thing, or for people under about 15.

BTW, I find it funny and ironic that I missed the Beeper craze on both sides! I was just a teeny bit too young to have them when they were cool and for older people around 1995, and a little too old to have them when they were for kids around 2000. ;D


For a long time I didn't really know what a pager was! I guess, while I was a few years younger than you, I missed them too. I don't remember them at all in lower high school (about 99-01) and by the year 2000 or so, cellphones (we call them 'mobile' phones) were all the rage. I tend to associate them as populist symbols of 90s teenage culture, exemplified in films such as 'Clueless.' It was only the electronics geeks or the rich kids who had cellphones back then.

For a long time I didn't really know what a pager was! I guess, while I was a few years younger than you, I missed them too. I don't remember them at all in lower high school (about 99-01) and by the year 2000 or so, cellphones (we call them 'mobile' phones) were all the rage. I tend to associate them as populist symbols of 90s teenage culture, exemplified in films such as 'Clueless.' It was only the electronics geeks or the rich kids who had cellphones back then.


Yeah. Cellphones have been popular longer than it may seem. I used to watch Rescue 911 in the mid '90s alot (it was am emergency show with re-enactments. William Shatner hosted it) and they often had, say motorists calling 911 from their car phones. They were present, but mostly something for rich or businesspeople. Not too many suburban teens had them before 1999.

I also recall them being called "mobile phones".

Yeah. Cellphones have been popular longer than it may seem. I used to watch Rescue 911 in the mid '90s alot (it was am emergency show with re-enactments. William Shatner hosted it) and they often had, say motorists calling 911 from their car phones. They were present, but mostly something for rich or businesspeople. Not too many suburban teens had them before 1999.

I also recall them being called "mobile phones".


Not too many suburban teens even really had cell phones before 2001 or 2002. Either that, or the age threshold was higher...like 14-16 as opposed to the 9 year olds who have basic cell phones now. I remember under 25% of my 6th grade class had cell phones in 2001-2002...when most people really got them was in 2003, when I was in 7th and 8th grade. Now, the overwhelming majority of 6th graders have cell phones.

Nine year olds with cell phones - what a joke huh?  ;D


Yeah, that's when you know something has gotten a little too mainstream. Either that or those kids are just spoiled. ;D


Herman is probably right, I might say 2003 or '04 was when cell's became to the extent they are now, with kids having so many or practically every person on the street. During 1998/99 to 2002, they were almost there, but not quite essential and still predated the cameraphone craze.

Yeah, that's when you know something has gotten a little too mainstream. Either that or those kids are just spoiled. ;D


Herman is probably right, I might say 2003 or '04 was when cell's became to the extent they are now, with kids having so many or practically every person on the street. During 1998/99 to 2002, they were almost there, but not quite essential and still predated the cameraphone craze.


Cameraphones were cool and trendy around 2004. That was also the peak of the "games and graphics" cell phone trend, when cell phones with alot of redundant extras were hot. Now, many less people actually use them. 2005-early 2006 was the popularity peak of MySpace and the iPod. Now, people are just used to them. Facebook is pretty hot with high school students right now. Texting is coming off the edge of its trend, as is cell phone radio. Youtube seemed to peak this summer and towards the end of the last school year.

I just have this memory of like, a few kids in my 6th grade class having them, and everybody borrowing the cell phones of those kids who did have them. I want to say to people, CELL PHONES ARE NOT ESSENTIAL. People managed before them with foresight and the pay phone, though it was more difficult.

Cameraphones were cool and trendy around 2004. That was also the peak of the "games and graphics" cell phone trend, when cell phones with alot of redundant extras were hot. Now, many less people actually use them. 2005-early 2006 was the popularity peak of MySpace and the iPod. Now, people are just used to them. Facebook is pretty hot with high school students right now. Texting is coming off the edge of its trend, as is cell phone radio. Youtube seemed to peak this summer and towards the end of the last school year.

I just have this memory of like, a few kids in my 6th grade class having them, and everybody borrowing the cell phones of those kids who did have them. I want to say to people, CELL PHONES ARE NOT ESSENTIAL. People managed before them with foresight and the pay phone, though it was more difficult.


Yeah, I more meant for the general population - I know some people who sure act like they're essential and I see it almost daily wherever I go. But I agree it's not the next wave of electricity or anything (and heck, the world survived without that for thousands of years too). I have one, although I don't use it that much, and I might've used the cameraphone, like 4-5 times.

I agree about Ipods, Myspace and YouTube all starting to end their peak this Summer or so.

Not too many suburban teens even really had cell phones before 2001 or 2002. Either that, or the age threshold was higher...like 14-16 as opposed to the 9 year olds who have basic cell phones now. I remember under 25% of my 6th grade class had cell phones in 2001-2002...when most people really got them was in 2003, when I was in 7th and 8th grade. Now, the overwhelming majority of 6th graders have cell phones.



Yeah, I remember when I was in middle school in the late '90s nobody had cell phones. Now it's not uncommon to see every student in a 6th grade classroom have them.

I think that early 2005 was the peak of cell phones with lots of extras being all the rage. There still popular now, but not quite as big a deal as back then.

Cameraphones were cool and trendy around 2004. That was also the peak of the "games and graphics" cell phone trend, when cell phones with alot of redundant extras were hot. Now, many less people actually use them. 2005-early 2006 was the popularity peak of MySpace and the iPod. Now, people are just used to them. Facebook is pretty hot with high school students right now. Texting is coming off the edge of its trend, as is cell phone radio. Youtube seemed to peak this summer and towards the end of the last school year.

I just have this memory of like, a few kids in my 6th grade class having them, and everybody borrowing the cell phones of those kids who did have them. I want to say to people, CELL PHONES ARE NOT ESSENTIAL. People managed before them with foresight and the pay phone, though it was more difficult.


When it comes down to the line, electricity and running water are not really essential for the purpose of sustaining life...Mobile phones are really part of the same revolution as the Internet, and other global communication systems. But it is slightly confronting where they could lead us...

I don't even have a cell phone. D=

there's a scene in the haskell wexler movie "medium cool" which shows a pager from around 1967. they've been around longer than you'd think! i assume they were colossally expensive back then, though, and probably didn't work that well.



Another early example of a pager is in the 1977 Mel Brooks film "High Anxiety". One of the thugs trying to kill Mel's character is contacted through one that's about the size of a cell phone from a decade ago. Good movie, BTW...but that's a discussion for another board, methinks.

I lived in Montreal from 1997-2000 and when I first got there, every teenager I saw seemed to be wearing a pager.  I didn't even know what they were!  Cell phones (or mobiles, as we brits still call them) hadn't really taken off when I left the UK.  Some people had car phones, which were like bricks.  I got my first cell in Canada (also a brick) and when I got back to the UK absolutely everyone had a cell phone.  Ironically, I now have a pager as well - as a student midwife I need to be on call for pregnant clients, who need to be able to reach me 24/7 for weeks at a time. 

Didn't know too many people of color, eh? That was a seriously gross generalization. I had a pager b/c I went to work and extracurricular activities right after school as well as college and since I was pretty much a busy person, it was one way besides catching me at home to reach me. Most of the people that I knew had them were white and middle-class. Yes, having a pager could be equated with having phone today. It wasn't that big a deal and after awhile while only doctors and some drug dealers had them (in the early usage era) - most of the people that had them were neither low-class or "ghetto".


Whoa I forgot all about this thread.  My use of the term "ghetto" by no means was equating people of color.  It was about teen and 20s culture from the 90s that I found unbelievably annoying.  Ghetto meaning cheap, phony.  Hanging around obsessing over your rims and spending your free time doing nothing productive.  There was no one race that did that, that kind of behavior was part of a lot people.  The slang is used by everyone, not by one group of people.  I don't even like it when people make racial remarks about others, and I certainly wasn't making any here.  Even a lot of cell phone users today act ghetto in public.  I knew my attack on the 90s pager community would piss some people off, but I didn't think you would think I was getting racial.

^ Yeah, I'd also agree "ghetto" (or anything else, for that matter) is more defined by how you act, not what you are.

And yes, I do see people today doing the same thing with accessoricized cell phones as they did with pagers c. 1995. Of course that doesn't mean that everyone who has a cameraphone is like this, but the ones who are seem to set the stereotype.



I know this can be a sensitive issue, but I'll also add that I think people who act like something they're not come across as far more "ghetto" than those who just naturally are that way. Vanilla Ice looked alot sillier and more overdone when he pretended to be this tough dude from the streets. Whereas the black guys he tried to emulate were just being themselves.

You could apply that to the pager issue Chris mentioned. I think the general misunderstanding can come from the fact that certain slang or stereotypes may have been race-oriented or more offensive when they were first coined, but now they've come to be more generalized. Yes, it's unfortunate that sometimes they can still be perceived as what they originally meant.