As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to sweep across the world, putting billions in isolation, many people are scrambling to stay tethered to friends, family, and coworkers. More than 80 percent of people surveyed in the United States and United Kingdom report spending more time squinting at their phones and other screens, according to data published by the World Economic Forum. Those little screens have come to feel like a lifeline, offering a sense of community and a sliver of normalcy.
That’s not exactly new. Decades ago, Bell and AT&T ran ads exhorting people to “reach out and touch someone.” The ads promised that phone calls could collapse the physical and emotional distance between people. In one commercial from the late 1980s, a kid phoning his parents from college was able to picture his family’s routine—sister primping for a date, brother rushing in from soccer practice, dad rifling through the refrigerator just a few hours after dinner.
But, of course, it wasn’t always this way. The last time a pandemic of comparable scale stampeded around the world, in 1918, only around a third of American households had phones, The New York Times recently reported—and, obviously, those devices were much lower-fi. For decades, people with phones had been largely discouraged from using them for gabbing, ostensibly because some towns only had a few lines to serve everyone. Then, when the flu began to devastate communities, some phone companies begged people to keep their calls to a minimum, Fast Company reported. In October 1918, for instance, the Michigan State Telephone Company took out an ad in a Battle Creek newspaper, asking locals to “please restrict your use of the telephone to calls which are absolutely essential,” thus freeing up operators to attend to “the essential business of the community.” Similar messages went out in New Jersey and North Carolina, where an ad asked the public to “refrain from using the telephone except when necessary so that prompt service can be given to the sick.”
“The sociability function seems so obviously important today, and yet was ignored or resisted by the industry for almost the first half of its history,” writes Claude S. Fischer, a sociologist at the University of California, Berkeley, in a 1988 article in the journal Technology and Culture.
Atlas Obscura exchanged emails with Fischer, also author of America Calling: A Social History of the Telephone to 1940, about how phones have helped people connect—sometimes, to the frustration of the phone companies.
When the telephone first emerged as a consumer product, how was it marketed, and who was encouraged to buy it?
It was originally marketed to businesses as a business device—a much-improved telegraph. When the Bell company started marketing to households, it focused for 30-plus years on practical household management: Get the phone for your wife so that she can call the doctor, the grocer, the police, and you can call her when you’re coming home with company. That sort of thing.
How did that work out?
Household users did use it for these purposes, but almost from the start customers—notably women—used it for social purposes: To check in with others, to arrange social dates, and, frankly, to gossip. This was even clearer in rural areas, where the phones were a major social lifeline. The telephone industry for decades saw this as a misuse of the telephone, and even tried to suppress it.
The shift was not the personal staying-connected use of the telephone, but the industry coming around to see these social uses as not a bug, but a feature. In the 1920s, the Bell companies switched from trying to repress chit-chat on the phones to marketing the phones as a great way to stay in touch with family and friends.
Now that we have so many other ways of staying in touch, what role does the phone play in times of crisis?
I see voice-to-voice communication today as part of a package of diverse and more flexible one-to-one communications, including email, texting, and the like. So people may, for example, text a few times a day, and arrange for a phone call on top. There is some evidence to suggest that the voice-to-voice remains the most intimate part of the communications package.
This interview has been edited and condensed.
"Wakati janga la COVID-19 linaendelea kuenea ulimwenguni kote, na kuweka mabilioni katika kutengwa, watu wengi wanakimbilia kukaa ""wenye uhusiano"" na marafiki, familia, na wafanyikazi wenzake." Zaidi ya asilimia 80 ya watu waliohojiwa nchini Marekani na Uingereza wanaripoti kutumia muda mwingi wakitazama simu zao na skrini nyingine, kulingana na takwimu zilizochapishwa na Jukwaa la Uchumi Duniani. Vipande hivyo vidogo vya skrini vimekuwa kama kamba ya uhai, vikitoa hisia ya kuwa sehemu ya jumuiya na kipande kidogo cha hali ya kawaida. Hilo si jambo jipya kabisa. "Mabali ya miaka kadhaa iliyopita, Bell na AT&T walichapisha matangazo ya kuwahimiza watu ""wafikie na kugusa mtu."" matangazo hayo yaliahidi kwamba simu zinaweza kuvunja umbali wa kimwili na kihisia kati ya watu." Katika moja ya matangazo ya biashara ya mwishoni mwa miaka ya 1980, mtoto akipigia simu wazazi wake kutoka chuo kikuu aliweza kuelezea familia yake ya kawaida - dada akijitayarisha kwa tarehe, ndugu akimbilia kutoka mazoezi ya mpira wa miguu, baba akichunguza katika friji masaa machache tu baada ya chakula cha jioni. Lakini, bila shaka, si sikuzote kwamba ilikuwa hivyo. Wakati wa mwisho janga la kiwango kama hicho lilipotokea duniani kote, mnamo 1918, karibu theluthi moja tu ya kaya za Amerika zilikuwa na simu, The New York Times iliripoti hivi karibuni, na, kwa wazi, vifaa hivyo vilikuwa vya chini sana. Kwa miongo kadhaa, watu wenye simu walikuwa wamekatazwa kuzitumia kwa ajili ya mazungumzo, kwa sababu miji fulani ilikuwa na mistari michache tu ya kuwahudumia watu wote. "Kisha, wakati homa ilipozidi kuenea katika maeneo ya karibu, kampuni za simu ziliwaomba watu ""wafanye simu chache tu,"" iliripoti gazeti la Fast Company." "Mwaka 1918, kampuni ya simu ya jimbo la Michigan ilitoa tangazo katika gazeti la Battle Creek, ikiwaomba watu wa eneo hilo ""kuepuka kutumia simu kwa ajili ya mawasiliano ya lazima kabisa, na hivyo kuwapa nafasi ya kufanya kazi muhimu za jamii."" - Claude S. Fischer, mwanasayansi wa jamii katika Chuo Kikuu cha Berkeley, California, katika makala ya 1988 katika jarida la ""Kulima na Teknolojia.""" "Mwanahabari wa Atlas Obscura, Michael Fischer, ambaye pia ni mwandishi wa kitabu ""America Calling: A Social History of the Telephone to 1940,"" amekuwa akizungumza na waandishi wa habari kuhusu jinsi simu zilivyowasaidia watu kuwasiliana na wengine, na hivyo kuwafanya wawe na wasiwasi." Simu ilipoanza kutumiwa kwa wingi, ni nani waliotumia simu hiyo? Ni awali kuuzwa kwa biashara kama kifaa cha biashara <unk> telegraph sana kuboreshwa. Kampuni ya Bell ilianza kuuza kwa nyumba, ilizingatia kwa zaidi ya miaka 30 juu ya usimamizi wa nyumbani wa vitendo: Pata simu kwa mke wako ili aweze kupiga daktari, duka la chakula, polisi, na unaweza kumpigia wakati unarudi nyumbani na kampuni. Jambo kama hilo. Jambo hilo lilitokeaje? Watumiaji wa nyumbani walitumia kwa madhumuni haya, lakini karibu tangu mwanzo wateja - hasa wanawake - walitumia kwa madhumuni ya kijamii: Kuangalia ndani na wengine, kupanga tarehe za kijamii, na, kwa uwazi, kueneza uvumi. Jambo hilo lilikuwa wazi hata zaidi katika maeneo ya mashambani, ambako simu zilikuwa kiungo muhimu cha maisha ya kijamii. Kwa miongo mingi, sekta ya simu iliona jambo hilo kuwa matumizi mabaya ya simu, na hata ilijaribu kulizuia. Mabadiliko haya hayakuwa matumizi ya kibinafsi ya simu, lakini sekta ya simu ikaanza kuona matumizi haya ya kijamii sio kama mdudu, bali kama kipengele. Katika miaka ya 1920, kampuni ya Bell ilibadilisha kutoka kujaribu kukandamiza mazungumzo ya simu hadi kuuza simu kama njia nzuri ya kukaa katika mawasiliano na familia na marafiki. Sasa kwa kuwa kuna njia nyingi za kuwasiliana, simu ina jukumu gani wakati wa shida? "Kulingana na ripoti ya Microsoft, mawasiliano ya sauti kwa sauti leo ni sehemu ya ""mfuko wa mawasiliano ya moja kwa moja ya aina mbalimbali na yenye kubadilika zaidi, ikiwa ni pamoja na barua pepe, ujumbe wa maandishi, na vinginevyo.""" Kwa mfano, unaweza kutuma ujumbe mara kadhaa kwa siku na kisha kuwasiliana kwa simu. Kuna baadhi ya ushahidi wa kupendekeza kwamba sauti-kwa-sauti bado ni sehemu ya karibu zaidi ya mfuko wa mawasiliano. Mahojiano haya yamerekebishwa na kupunguzwa.