8 Experiences People Don't Have Anymore Because of Cellphones

Saying that cellphones are ubiquitous in the modern world is like saying that the sky is blue. Most of us don’t even notice how prevalent these little machines have become anymore, in the same way most of us don’t even notice how much time we spend scrolling and swiping the hours away. 

Phones and screens have also become a major part of many children’s lives. Ironically, many of the Silicon Valley executives responsible for creating and spreading some of today’s most popular technologies have spoken out about not wanting their kids to have excessive screen time. “I don’t generally want my kids to be sitting in front of a TV or computer for a long period of time,” Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg once said.

Still, a 2025 survey found that children ages 5 to 8 spent an average of 3 hours and 38 minutes using screen media, while a 2021 report found that tweens ages 5 to 12 spent over 5 hours on screens daily, and teens ages 13 to 18 averaged over 8 hours per day. Of course, this includes watching television, gaming, and reading on digital devices. 

Still, the prevalence of screens in the modern world has fundamentally changed what everyday life looks like for people of all ages. Here are eight experiences that people just don’t have nearly as often anymore due to those little devices so many of us carry around in our pockets.

1. Boredom
2. Calling and talking to people
3. Waiting and wondering if the person you planned to meet will show up
4. Getting lost
5. Waiting to look up information, or simply not knowing
6. Watching or listening to whatever happened to be on
7. Having completely unrecorded experiences
8. Being completely unreachable

Boredom

Boredom used to be a defining aspect of daily life. Whether you were waiting in a doctor’s office, standing in a checkout line, or simply spacing out, there was a lot more time spent simply doing nothing before there were phones waiting and ready to fill every spare moment.

But these moments often made it possible to have conversations with other people, or simply to sit, reflect, and check in with oneself. Once, simply being with the discomfort of boredom was a much bigger part of life. Nowadays, though, people can just pick up phones and fill every spare moment with entertainment—and many do.

Studies have shown that boredom can be good for the brain, and genuine downtime may provide necessary space to recharge and rest. Meanwhile, filling every moment with dopamine hits from social media and technology has been linked to higher levels of anxiety and stress, along with lower focus and creativity.

Calling and talking to people

Prior to smartphones, people spent a lot more time talking on the phone and simply being around other people. You had to pick up the phone and talk to a real human to order food, make plans, check whether things were open or available, and much more. You also had to go out to stores in order to buy things rather than ordering online. Nowadays, in the world of food delivery apps and Amazon and quick text messages, most people simply spend far less time talking on the phone and having face-to-face conversations than they used to.

Waiting and wondering if the person you planned to meet will show up

Before cellphones, you had to make plans and simply hope that the other person would show up. There would have been no way to reach them, as you both would have been out of the house, and so you had to rest in that mystery and just trust that everything would go well. It was a staple of life once—standing outside a theater or restaurant and waiting for someone to arrive, wondering if you’d gotten the day and time right. 

In general, it also used to be more common to show up at a friend’s house entirely unannounced, and neighbors would just pop over unexpectedly. Nowadays, texting and messaging services have made it easier than ever to schedule—and reschedule and cancel—plans. 

Getting lost

Getting lost used to be a regular part of life. Pre-Google Maps, you’d have to remember directions based on landmarks and street names, or trace a route using paper maps (or ones printed out from MapQuest, if you lived during a very specific era). Today, it’s still very possible to get lost; not everyone has a phone, and phones can die or lose their internet connection quite easily. Still, before GPS, navigating unknown territories and hoping you’d find your way to your destination was much more of a routine experience, as was stopping to ask people on random streets for directions. 

Waiting to look up information, or simply not knowing

Today, it's easy to simply open your phone and immediately find an answer to almost any question—and if you do stumble upon a question without an answer, it's still possible to immediately access all the theories ever published about it. Yet before phones, people had to wait to look up answers, either on computers at home or before that, in encyclopedias or libraries. People simply had to spend far more time sitting in the unknown before smartphones existed, or relying on their own theories and intuition in order to answer questions. 

Watching or listening to whatever happened to be on

Nowadays, streaming services allow us to pick any television show, movie, or form of entertainment at any time. But before all these emerged, people spent a lot more time simply watching whatever show was on, listening to whatever was on the radio, or reading what was on the shelf. Sure, people had fewer choices when it came to their entertainment choices, but paradoxically, the lack of access that defined the pre-streaming era often resulted in new discoveries and exposed people to perspectives outside of their digital bubbles. 

Having completely unrecorded experiences

It’s almost hard to imagine for some of us now, but prior to smartphones, most of life used to be completely free from documentation. Unless we went around with cameras or video cameras or journaled about what happened, there would usually be no way to access recordings, memories, or photos from concerts, parties, or other events.

Now, it’s hard to go to a concert without seeing a sea of people recording on their phones. People have more memories, photos, and records of their lives than ever now—but the jury is still out on whether recording things makes us less present for them at the end of the day.

Being completely unreachable

Before cellphones, it was extremely common for people to go many hours, days, or weeks without communicating with anyone except for the people they were actually physically around. If you went on vacation somewhere far away, you’d simply have to tell everyone except for those you were with that you wouldn’t be able to communicate until you were back—unless they wanted to pay for an expensive long-distance call. Before all that, of course, people wrote letters in order to communicate, which took days, weeks, or months to arrive. Now, no matter where in the world you are, it’s possible and sometimes even expected to share play-by-play updates with everyone you know thanks to texting and social media.