Telephonic touchstone: 149 years ago today, the first phone call happened
Yo wats cmere i wnt 2 c u
If Alexander Graham Bell were around today, that might be how he'd summon his intrepid assistant, Thomas Watson.
Of course, for some oldheads that message might take a minute to decipher, or just give us fits for its lack of proper spelling and punctuation or capitalization.
But 149 years after the very first telephonic communication − when Bell's voice first crackled over the wires, on March 10, 1876 − more of us are eschewing phone conversations for text messages, according to a 2024 YouGov survey.
YouGov found 52% of Americans preferred an SMS or text message, compared with 22% who liked an actual phone call to keep in touch with friends and loved ones.
And we're not even the most text-inclined people on the planet: That distinction goes to Singapore, where 64% of people surveyed preferred texting to talking.
If you're more of a talker than a texter, you might want to pack for a long trip: Of the 17 countries where polling was conducted, only those in India preferred talking over other forms of telephonic communication: 61% said they'd rather have a voice-only call than texts, video calls or face-to-face interaction.
Still, some do prefer to talk, just like Bell and Watson: grandparents who want to hear little ones' giggles, people who are separated from loved ones such as military families or transcontinental relatives or (ahem) reporters who know the importance of tone and inflection, things that can be hard if not impossible to discern in texts.
In honor of those luddites, and in honor of Bell and Watson, here are a few fun facts about phones.
Bell was an immigrant and had a background in teaching
Alexander Graham Bell was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, according to History.com. His father, Alexander Melville Bell, was well-known in public speaking and speech correction. The family moved to Canada in 1870 and Bell came to Boston in 1871, where he later opened his own school, training teachers of the deaf.
Alexander Graham Bell had an affinity and affection for deaf people
Bell continued his work with deaf people, including deaf and blind educator and writer Helen Keller, whom he connected with her teacher, Anne Sullivan. Bell used royalties from his inventions to help organizations dedicated to deaf people's education, according to History.com. His mother had been hard of hearing and his wife was deaf because of scarlet fever.
How many Americans own cellphones?
Quick answer: Almost all of them.
According to Consumer Affairs' website, more than 98% of Americans (about 331 million people) surveyed in 2024 own a cellphone, and nine out of 10 of those who have one say they own a smart phone. Worldwide, 1.16 billion smartphones were shipped in 2024. Apple led the smartphone pack in the U.S., garnering more than half of the country's market share.
On average, Americans look at their cellphones about 144 times a day.
Probably at least a few of those checks are to look for a poorly punctuated text.
Do you want to share a slice of Americana with Paste BN? Contact Phaedra Trethan by email at ptrethan@usatoday.com, on X (formerly Twitter) @wordsbyphaedra, on BlueSky @byphaedra, or on Threads @by_phaedra