Blog 4: First Cell Phone

Introductions 

Imagine a world where if you were lost, you would have to pull out a map and figure out where you are and where your location is, or a world where your friend who’s across the country needs to connect with you but doesn’t have a phone, so she needs to find the nearest phone booth and call. After picturing those situations, you can see why technology is a gift. Technology is something spectacular that has made our lives so much easier. 

Personally, I use my phone every day. I use this device to do my homework, watch television, and connect with my friends and family. This would not be a thing if it wasn’t for the first cell phone. 

 

About the Creator 

The excellent Martin Cooper, an engineer at Motorola, started all of this in 1973 with an idea. He made the blueprint for a Device that had never been heard of before. The idea wasn’t even considered a landline advanced for the time, as it was a mobile phone. It was a crazy idea, but Cooper accomplished it with his prototype.

Problems of the First Phone

Although this phone started the pathway of technological Innovation, several issues were faced. These issues include battery life, bulkiness, cost, and call quality.

 

Battery Life: The battery life was a significant issue as it only lasted 20 minutes after a full charge. This was an issue as it took 10 hours to charge.

Bulkiness: The phone, although portable, was very bulky. It was 10 inches tall, and 2 1/2 pounds people even called it the brick due to these factors

Call Quality: At the time, call quality wasn’t the best or worst, but due to our improvements and technology, we can see now that the standard wasn’t the standard then. Calls often sounded fuzzy and would break off.

Cost: due to this being the first invention of its kind, the price was costly, being 3,995 in now times money

Effects on the World

Cell phones have many positive effects, such as improving communication worldwide and opening a new ballpark for new devices to pave the way for freedom to call anywhere. There are so many positives. There are a few negatives, as this path leads people to have distractions every day that distract them from their work, and such a decline in face-to-face conversations occurs, too. Privacy became an issue as people were trusting of strangers as no danger occurred yet

How it Changes Society

As I stated before, people could call from anywhere, and a string couldn’t tie them down. This technological shift transformed society by enabling greater mobility, boosting productivity, and fostering constant connectivity. Over time, the development of smartphones further changed how people interact, work, and access information, shaping modern society.

Conclusion

Martin Cooper’s invention of the cell phone marked a private moment in technology history. It opened up new possibilities for communications, forever changing how we connect the first cell phone. It’s had its share of problems, but its impact has been profound today. Smartphones are more than just communication devices; they allow us to do things, and we have Cooper to pave the way. We must consider both positive and negative aspects when looking at these devices and use them responsibly. 

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Cites:

Hardy, J. (2024, November 1). The first cell phone: A complete phone history from 1920 to present. History Cooperative. 

    https://historycooperative.org/first-cell-phone/ 

Old Dominion Univ. (n.d.). History of phones. History of. https://www.cs.odu.edu/~tkennedy/cs300/development/Public/M01-

    HistoryOfPhones/index.html 

McNamee, K., & Yu, M. (2023, April 3). 50 years ago, Martin Cooper made the first cellphone call. NPR. 

    https://www.npr.org/2023/04/03/1167815751/50-years-ago-martin-cooper-made-the-first-cell-phone-call 

Gibson, W. E. (2022, July 13). The first cell phone call was made 45 years ago. AARP. https://www.aarp.org/politics-society/history/info-

    2018/first-cell-phone-call.html