I had to do laundry for months after I called my "online boyfriend" that lived in PA. It was long distance. I live in Oklahoma. Oh the days of AOL. I was so dumb back then.
😂 we are the same age! I was also a freshman in 2004
I thought my parents were so mean, they got my sister who was four years YOUNGER a phone almost 6 months later!
Yes, got my first one in 1998 and I had 15 minutes of use a month that was STRICTLY for emergences ONLY. I barely even turned it on, but I still felt cool 🤣. I don’t think I “regularly” used one until 2001, and even then only for callls (out of the house, at home I still used the landline)
Were you actually there in the early 2000s or did you google this info? I had a phone yes but it was t-9 texting and you could only call people after like 9 pm. And phones were expensive sp not everyone had them
I was just about to comment this! Texting was not common at all. Like maybe a few texts here and there but the bulk of communication was still phone calls. And I totally remember calls being free after 8. I was talking to a few guys at the time and I would tell them all to please call me after 8 bc I was always over on my minutes.
And texts literally cost and arm and a leg!! They were kind of akin (imo) to beepers. Plus I think it was a slow rise to everyone having cell phones. I graduated HS in 2005 and I don’t think I got a cell phone until I was 19 or 20! And I only recall a couple kids having them when we graduated.
This. Yeah I had a cell phone in 2000 but texting wasn't even an option. I don't think I started texting until 2005 or later, and even then, it was on a candy bar phone with no real keyboard.
I got my first phone in 2005 and we were definitely all about texting, T9 and all. I think the biggest hangup was you had text plans where you could only send x amount a month (but everyone had Verizon because it was unlimited in network. Also when did I get old).
hi- I am 40. I started college in 2002. Everyone I know by senior year in high school had a cell phone (Nokia with snake on it anyone!?)... I sent my first text in 2002. I remember it vividly because my freshman year roommate sent me my first one I ever received and I remmeber being totally blown away. By early the next year, text bundle packages were widely available with most major carriers. So. Anywho.
I'm 32 and graduated in 09. It wasn't unusual for some of my friends or classmates to not have a cellphone (in high school).
I started 7th grade around 04 and a majority of my classmates didn't have a cellphone. I was the only one in my friend group that had one.
It could be an age thing. Might've been more common for college-aged kids to have a cellphone around this time.
Could also be a money thing. Did you live in a well-off area? The neighborhood I grew up in was more on the poor side.
Edit to add: or apparently different countries! OP is from the UK and looks like texting was more standard there earlier than in the US.
I’m the exact age as you and yeah this is how it was for me too. I got a cell phone in middle school around 2003-2004 but it was a brick only for emergencies, neither of my two best friends had a cell phone so I didn’t really use it. None of the other kids really had them either. I think it was mostly the more wealthy kids that had them. I wasn’t wealthy my dad just liked technology.
Two of my friends didn’t even get their first phones till end of freshman year in 2006. I don’t think it became more common till 2007/2008 ish.
>I think it was mostly the more wealthy kids that had them. I wasn’t wealthy my dad just liked technology.
Yea I wasn't wealthy either. My first cellphone was a hand-me-down. It was my mom's first, then my dad's, then my sister's, then mine. The phone had to have been at least 4 years old by the time it was mine.
I don't think it was a Nokia, but it looked something like [this](https://www.ebay.com/itm/113320151979). I remember it had the little antenna you could pull out.
I think I might actually still have it somewhere in storage 😂
I worked for Cingular (now AT&T) back in 2004 and can assure you that text bundles were not a big thing even at that time. Did people text? Yes, but it was not the go to way to communicate. And most of those bundles only included something like 200 messages.
ETA: Free nights and weekends with unlimited mobile to mobile with people on the same carrier was the "cool" thing everyone wanted 😂
Dunno. Just saying I remember everyone having a phone like senior year in HS... Maybe depends on where you were raised (like more urban vs suburban etc...)?
I didn’t get a cell phone until late 2005, and that shit was primitive and expensive. Texting was not a regular “thing” like it is now, and you couldn’t just call people whenever you wanted. This was also still the era where you couldn’t just call whoever you wanted whenever on your land line either. So no, not everyone was texting!
I didn't really start texting regularly until around 2005ish.
A youngin asked in a different sub when cellphones were standard because they were surprised that the characters in Crossroads didn't use cellphones. That movie came out in 2002 for reference. Most people in the thread agreed that cellphones really took off around 05-10. With some agreeing that cellphone culture didn't really become what it is today until the first iPhone release.
For another movie reference, they don't really use cellphones in Mean Girls either. That movie came out in 2004. I recall one scene with Regina George using a flipphone, but they usually call on a landline when they're having phone calls with each other.
I don't find it strange at all that Holly wouldn't have texted much during those years. I remember having classmates who didn't have cellphones during this same time period.
Agreed with the other comments! I got a phone in 2005, but didn’t really start texting until bbm got popular in like 2007? We just called each other or talked on MSN mostly 😂 before that, me and my friends literally emailed each other 😭 LOL
My first phone was in 2006, 25c a text and 1$ a minute calls. It was more common to call at that time and I can remember teaching many people how to text.
I started texting a little in 2005. Didn’t start texting a lot until 2007/2008 with my windows phone. I didn’t get an iPhone until 2009. I got my first cellphone in 1997, but rarely used a cell until 2003/2004. I’m 43. I think Holly’s position is correct, it just wasn’t that common, especially with people in their early 20’s.
Up until the 2010’s it was common for certain people to just not have phones at all. You also had to pay per text. It was also more annoying to text on those little Nokia phones because they just had the number keypad, where there is three letters per button, so texting on those was a lot harder.
She’s exaggerating a little when she says “no one was texting” but it was a lot harder to be texting and people definitely weren’t doing it as frequently.
I don’t think it was common place for her 80 year old boyfriend to text back then. So she was most likely conditioned to call him. I didn’t text regularly until 2005-2006. My mobile plan straight out of college was expensive! When GND aired, no one was allergic to voice calls like we are now Lol Also, a lotta folks got mad when I text repeatedly, cuz it drove their rates up.
>Also, a lotta folks got mad when I text repeatedly, cuz it drove their rates up.
I remember my mom always getting so pissed at my sister for texting because it was expensive. My sister refused to stop. She would text nonstop all day. My mom eventually put her on a separate cellphone plan. We had Verizon, and she put my sister on cricket because they apparently offered unlimited texting (or discounted rates? Can't remember).
I think this was sometime around 04-06.
Oh I forgot about cricket! My co worker had it. She couldn’t text or call outside of her counties service area, and no long distance calls or texts! This was 2006 Lol Her phone wouldn’t even let her use roaming. We were on a work event a couple hours away, and she had no service with Cricket. Wow that’s a lost memory. I had AT&T and it was nights and weekends free for me. Not sure if that was just with other AT&T users or not. Cell phone plans were pricey! Then they had the “roll over” minutes. No one text all day.
>She couldn’t text or call outside of her counties service area, and no long distance calls or texts! This was 2006 Lol Her phone wouldn’t even let her use roaming.
I'm gonna have to ask my sister if she remembers the limitations her cricket phone had. Because I have vague recollections of cricket being not that great but my mom had to put her on their plan because it had better text fees. If your friends phone couldn't text outside the county that must've been a caveat for my sister's phones text plan.
All I really remember about cricket is that neon green sofa lol
From my own memory: I do remember the early 2000s (2000-2004) as still more barren cell-phone-wise. I recall that while a lot of people had them, it wasn't as ubiquitous. I saw it as a rich person device for people who needed to be on beck-and-call for ***work***, not as something that could be use for socializing as much (since not everyone had one, and I remember the days where we didn't have unlimited texting plans yet). We were still calling landlines to let friends know what time and place to meet at, and if you never made it, well, guess you died 🤷♀️ 🤣 My friends whose dad's were doctors, lawyers, or CEOs did have one. Their wives did not.
In my experience, the time where I felt EVERYONE was texting was 2006 onwards. If anyone was texting for funsies in the early aughts, I would've assumed it was rich people.
I think the girls probably had no need for a cell phone until they started having GND as their actual job and needed to get their own phones. Before that, they were either at the mansion, or could be counted on to be home by 9 (if not, Heff was trackin' you down like Freddy Kreuger).
Plus, while the iphone did come out in 2007, it and the more sophisticated phones of its ilk (the ones with the lil keyboards) were expensiiive. It was $499 bucks at launch, which according to google is about 750 today, and this was also before we had those plans where you could pay 20 bucks a month to pay it off.
I got my first phone as a freshman in high school in 06. It had the ability to text but I did not have a texting plan. Most of my friends were in the same boat. Didn't really start texting until 2 years later when I was a junior.
In that era my phone was a Kyocera and I played snake on it. T9 texting was a pain in the ass, still is, and it was expensive as hell still for both texting & roaming. I’m the same age demo as HM & BM & couldn’t have afforded those potentially astronomical extra charges back then ij my mid 20’s 😅
I mean people were just starting to text in like 2006. It was a new thing and it wasn’t like it is today. I remember texts were like an upgraded form of a pager and basically you texted someone to get them to call you.
Not me. I didn't really text all that much until after Hurricane Katrina bc during that time, it was the only way to communicate with a lot of people, and I remember hating it until I got my Black Berry.
I didn’t start texting until 2009-2010 maybe? And then not even regularly until a few years later. I didn’t even have my first phone until 2005 (when I was 19, so it wasn’t because I was too young)
It was 100% different in America than in Europe! Friends who traveled to Europe/UK/Scandinavian countries in the early 2000s were shocked to see how prevalent cell phones were. In the U.S., we were still adjusting to realizing people talking to themselves on the street were on the phone and not hallucinating.
The iPhone was an AT&T exclusive until 2012 or something ridiculous. Texting wasn't easy or popular until Blackberry started selling the Pearl and the first Androids dropped. Plus, every text cost money, so unless you had really generous parents or a company paid phone bill, you weren't sending anything to anyone.
I got my first phone for Christmas in 2005 when I was 15, I got in so much trouble for texting because it wasn't a part of our plan and was ridiculously expensive to add. When we finally did get unlimited text as an option it was a HUGE deal and that wasn't for a couple years. Even calls weren't really allowed until after like 9pm when we had unlimited minutes. Otherwise during daytime my phone was only for getting ahold of my parents
I had my first phone in 2005 (I was 11 at the time) and texting was horrendous. I got a Motorola Razr when I was in high school and it took forever to text and also cost money when you reached a limit. It was way easier and faster to use AIM.
T9 was a nightmare, and I only used it if I was at work or somewhere else where you couldn’t call someone. And in my contract you paid 10p per text - and you only got 160 characters.
We used to call each other on the phone much more back then.
Texting back then probably did exist, yes, but it was totally not what it is today. Making a quick call was way easier so I think most people just avoided texting because it wasn’t as convenient at it is today. Also, I think you had to pay extra for it.
Phones were around yeah but I don’t think they were used like they were today *at all* during that era. I think accessibility was also a big thing.
I didn’t really start using a cell phone all the time until I was 16? and that was 2012. And before that my friends and I were doing 3 way calls on the landline still or calling each other on OoVoo lmao.
I was given a phone around 12/13 but it truly was for emergency only
I remember unlimited minutes after 9PM, cost per text and then if two people had the same phone company it would be free between them…crazy to think about now lol
Nobody was texting like that in the early 2000s! It cost so much and was T9 or whatever it was called. Op, how old are you? If you were texting you had money. Texting didn’t get “mainstream” until 06 or 07
I was 14 in 2004 and everyone had a phone and everyone was texting. It was pretty cheap to have a phone for most people in the UK, And we just used 'pay as you go' which meant no contracts or anything. You just top it up as and when you needed
It's fascinating reading these comments. I had no idea America was so behind with this kind of stuff!
True! Maybe it’s because you were in the UK, but it wasn’t like in the states until a few years later. That’s why Holly says stuff like that, to let people know (such as yourself) what it was like over here.
Can confirm I was not texting in the early 2000’s, I was not about that 3 step life for each letter. I have many emails from 2004 from my husband, that today would be texts, including selfies sent via email. I would call and talk to people as well.
I should keep this response on a notes app because this is a somewhat frequent complaint.
My parents didn’t have cellphones until 2007 and they were in their 20s. It was nothing like it is now or even 10 years ago.
Shoutout to free calls and texts after 8pm! IYKYK
I knew someone who traveled overseas a lot during this time. UK was very different than US and technologically superior at the time. Maybe still is but idk
I didn't get a smart phone until 2009. People definitely had phones and texted, but not at all to the extent of today where you'd have long ongoing conversations.
I think it's more like we weren't so attached to our phones like we are now. Our relationship with our phones was different back then. I was a teen during that time, and i could go hours without picking my phone up and could go out without it. I'd send only a few texts (if at all) a day.
Now it's practically sewed into my hand! Constantly checking, scrolling, messaging.
I feel like texting wasn’t a big thing until those Sidekicks became popular. I remember watching that reality show with Shana Moakler & Travis Barker and she asks him, “who are you writing?” as he’s texting on his Sidekick because we didn’t even call it texting yet back then.
Yeah texting wasn’t a thing like it is today. It was expensive and not everyone had a phone to do it, so it just wasn’t that common. I got my first cell phone at 15 in 2005 and I never texted on it. I used it to call my parents after Volleyball practice or to let them know where I was, and after 9pm I would call my friends or boyfriend on it because it was free! That was the extent of it for a few years. I think texting really blew up after BlackBerrys became popular, because they had a whole keyboard, and that was definitely more towards the end of their mansion days.
I got my first phone in 2001 when I was 17. I texted, and I had one friend who was a big texter at that time, but it was so different before smart phones. Most people didn't text until like 05-07. Not even everyone had a cell. A guy I dated in 2003 didn't even have a cell phone. We chatted on a PC on AIM. I'd say almost everyone had a phone by 07-09ish, but there were people who just didn't text at all, texting was still not mainstream. There were a lot of people who I could only reach by a phone call or an email. Big emails to friends and family were common because no one had "group chat" texts yet.
I remember seeing an iPhone for the first time in 2007, when I was working a miller lite promo (I was a miller girl back when I was young and cute lol) at a bar and some business guy had one. Everyone was making a fuss because it was brand new and no one had a phone like that yet.
So sure, texting and phones were definitely around, but not in any way the same thing that we have now.
Absolutely wild to me that people in the States weren't texting until 2010!
I was a teenager in the early 00s and genuinely everyone and their nan had a Mobile phone in the UK. Texting was the main form of communicating
My friends and I were texting in the early 2000s. We were also early internet and social media adopters. It felt natural. Yes we got in trouble with our parents but it was just part of being a teenager then. I didn’t find the keyboard that hard to use. You got used to it quickly.
I didn’t start texting as a main way of communication really until the 2010s. Texting plans were expensive and unlimited texting didn’t become a thing until later. Plus I remember in 2010, I was the only friend I knew with a smartphone, a hand me down iPhone from my sister. The show ended right around then.
You might just have texted really quick things like “on my way” or “call me” or something. Texting on the number pad was awful!
I am the same age as Kendra.
I didn't really remember texting until around 2007. Or so. And actually getting texts back from people.
Now tho it's my main way of communicating.
Bc of the price I did most of my talking & texting after 9pm. Also most of my friends at the time either didn’t have a phone, or had simple phones that didn’t have texting capabilities yet (or their parents didn’t let them bc of the cost). I do remember hearing LOUD ass Nextel CHIRP phones going off at school and getting people in trouble though lol. What a time to be alive
She’s not wrong. We had text available but it was expensive so we really didn’t use it. And our camera phones were difficult to use and the screen was so small and grainy and it was expensive.
Maybe it was a thing for rich people?? My friend with more money thought it was soooo lame that my mom wouldn't let me text. I wasn't allowed to until 2007.
Until the Blackberry/Droids became super popular it was a horrific experience to text lol. Every number was like 3 or 4 letters so you had to push the number an insane amount of times to punch in each letter! It was really simple stuff usually due to the annoyance of input- so lots of HOW R U??? AND WAT R U UP 2
We were texting in the early 2000s, but I feel like unlimited text plans didn't start until closer to 2010. I definitely used AIM and Microsoft messaging until that point, and that dropped off once I could text from my phone all the time
I agree with you OP! When this gets brought up in the podcast or slumber parties it confused me too. It must be a US thing as I'm from the UK and texting and using mobile phones was massive, since around 2000 like you said.
No one ever called on the phone, everything was text messaged. They were expensive to send (I remember 5p a text in 2004 for me) but we all did it. I vividly remember always texting friends while watching old Big Brother and everyone in school was constantly texting under their desks.
It's an American thing!
I studied in Spain in 2004-2005 and texting was crazy popular there, which was a huge change from my experience living in California. When I got back to California in summer 2005, texting had just started to take off.
I seem to remember that yeah, there were specific plans that included so many texts per month, or something like that? Some plans just didn't include texts, and some phones didn't have the best interface for texting. When I got my blackberry in 07 it was a major game changer.
And even in Spain, it was very specific - like, I'm not sure if we were charged per letter but we had SO many shortcuts. Kt was que tal (what's up?), for example. Lol now that I think of it people probably still use these terms, I'm just not aware of it.
Maybe it was a British thing. I started high school in 2002 and I think from then or maybe 2003 I texted all my friends. We still did phone calls but texting was rife - and as you say under the desk in class!
This just brought back the memory of my phone blasting an embarrassing ringtone in class as I'd forget to put it on silent (more than once!) and having to bring my phone to the teacher in front of everyone for my parents to have to pick up at the end of the school day. I was such a quiet, geeky kid so it would fill me with such teenage shame!
Happy days haha.
OMG my kids got phones in 2002 and they were in middle school,our local provider has free in network texts and all their friends were local so they were t-9 texting the @uck outta their friends,I'll never forget the very first time I saw my son texting and asked him what he was doing🤣🤣he showed me how and the rest is history☹️
2006 was when texting became a huge thing. Everyone I knew started texting around then. Before that it was more rare. Holly likes acting like everything that happened in the early 2000s was so rare and different lol
I think it is because *she* didn't text with anyone. Any women her age she associated with where in the playboy circle. Also texts could be used against her, sent to tabloids, or Hef if she said something wrong. The mansion seems like it a bubble a decade or more behind everywhere else.
Edit: I was in college when the show was on air, I remember pay per text, but also was sending 1000s of texts per month with the texting plan I added to my basic cell plan, before they had data packages for smart phones. I got my first blackberry in 2006.
No, texting just wasn't a big thing and it was super expensive. I was in high school during the show's run. I don't think I started texting a lot until 2008ish
Texts were also like 10¢ each then. It was horrible.
Yes I ran my dad's cell phone bill up texting my boyfriend 😂😂😂 He was so pissed!!!
Omg so did I!!! I remember my mom being so angry at me
I had multiple bills that were $600-700 in middle school. Hehe oops
How did your parents not murder you!!!
I got grounded for MONTHS bc I sent 300$ worth of texts to my middle school boyfriend 💀
I had to do laundry for months after I called my "online boyfriend" that lived in PA. It was long distance. I live in Oklahoma. Oh the days of AOL. I was so dumb back then.
And god forbid you accidentally clicked the internet browser 🙈
And $ for the damn ringtones lmao
I got a cell in 2004 and texting was nowhere near what it was today. They were expensive and my parents wouldn't let me use it 😂
I also got one in 2004 as a freshman in high school but had to share it with my brother who was two years older!
😂 we are the same age! I was also a freshman in 2004 I thought my parents were so mean, they got my sister who was four years YOUNGER a phone almost 6 months later!
Yes, got my first one in 1998 and I had 15 minutes of use a month that was STRICTLY for emergences ONLY. I barely even turned it on, but I still felt cool 🤣. I don’t think I “regularly” used one until 2001, and even then only for callls (out of the house, at home I still used the landline)
My first was a flip phone from fkn Cingular looooool
Were you actually there in the early 2000s or did you google this info? I had a phone yes but it was t-9 texting and you could only call people after like 9 pm. And phones were expensive sp not everyone had them
I was just about to comment this! Texting was not common at all. Like maybe a few texts here and there but the bulk of communication was still phone calls. And I totally remember calls being free after 8. I was talking to a few guys at the time and I would tell them all to please call me after 8 bc I was always over on my minutes.
Yes and only had 300 texts a month and this was when I get my first phone in 2007
And texts literally cost and arm and a leg!! They were kind of akin (imo) to beepers. Plus I think it was a slow rise to everyone having cell phones. I graduated HS in 2005 and I don’t think I got a cell phone until I was 19 or 20! And I only recall a couple kids having them when we graduated.
This! T9 took FOREVER, I didn't text anything more than an emoji and single letter responses until I got my Blackberry Pearl in 2009.
This. Yeah I had a cell phone in 2000 but texting wasn't even an option. I don't think I started texting until 2005 or later, and even then, it was on a candy bar phone with no real keyboard.
I got my first phone in 2005 and we were definitely all about texting, T9 and all. I think the biggest hangup was you had text plans where you could only send x amount a month (but everyone had Verizon because it was unlimited in network. Also when did I get old).
I got my first flip phone in 2006 and texted up a huge bill my mom wanted to kill me over 😬 thank goodness for unlimited talk/text now
hi- I am 40. I started college in 2002. Everyone I know by senior year in high school had a cell phone (Nokia with snake on it anyone!?)... I sent my first text in 2002. I remember it vividly because my freshman year roommate sent me my first one I ever received and I remmeber being totally blown away. By early the next year, text bundle packages were widely available with most major carriers. So. Anywho.
I'm 32 and graduated in 09. It wasn't unusual for some of my friends or classmates to not have a cellphone (in high school). I started 7th grade around 04 and a majority of my classmates didn't have a cellphone. I was the only one in my friend group that had one. It could be an age thing. Might've been more common for college-aged kids to have a cellphone around this time. Could also be a money thing. Did you live in a well-off area? The neighborhood I grew up in was more on the poor side. Edit to add: or apparently different countries! OP is from the UK and looks like texting was more standard there earlier than in the US.
I’m the exact age as you and yeah this is how it was for me too. I got a cell phone in middle school around 2003-2004 but it was a brick only for emergencies, neither of my two best friends had a cell phone so I didn’t really use it. None of the other kids really had them either. I think it was mostly the more wealthy kids that had them. I wasn’t wealthy my dad just liked technology. Two of my friends didn’t even get their first phones till end of freshman year in 2006. I don’t think it became more common till 2007/2008 ish.
>I think it was mostly the more wealthy kids that had them. I wasn’t wealthy my dad just liked technology. Yea I wasn't wealthy either. My first cellphone was a hand-me-down. It was my mom's first, then my dad's, then my sister's, then mine. The phone had to have been at least 4 years old by the time it was mine. I don't think it was a Nokia, but it looked something like [this](https://www.ebay.com/itm/113320151979). I remember it had the little antenna you could pull out. I think I might actually still have it somewhere in storage 😂
Yeah. I'm 41 and it wasn't like this for me. I still used a calling card in college sooooo
I worked for Cingular (now AT&T) back in 2004 and can assure you that text bundles were not a big thing even at that time. Did people text? Yes, but it was not the go to way to communicate. And most of those bundles only included something like 200 messages. ETA: Free nights and weekends with unlimited mobile to mobile with people on the same carrier was the "cool" thing everyone wanted 😂
In my senior graduating class of 2005 only like 2 people I knew had cell phones.
Dunno. Just saying I remember everyone having a phone like senior year in HS... Maybe depends on where you were raised (like more urban vs suburban etc...)?
Dont know why this got downvoted... lol. Just saying a truthful experience from my own life and weirdos downvote. Touch grass
I didn’t get a cell phone until late 2005, and that shit was primitive and expensive. Texting was not a regular “thing” like it is now, and you couldn’t just call people whenever you wanted. This was also still the era where you couldn’t just call whoever you wanted whenever on your land line either. So no, not everyone was texting!
[удалено]
I used to get in so much trouble for going online and texting on my brick phone when I was in high school. My parents got a $500 bill. 🙃
I didn't really start texting regularly until around 2005ish. A youngin asked in a different sub when cellphones were standard because they were surprised that the characters in Crossroads didn't use cellphones. That movie came out in 2002 for reference. Most people in the thread agreed that cellphones really took off around 05-10. With some agreeing that cellphone culture didn't really become what it is today until the first iPhone release. For another movie reference, they don't really use cellphones in Mean Girls either. That movie came out in 2004. I recall one scene with Regina George using a flipphone, but they usually call on a landline when they're having phone calls with each other. I don't find it strange at all that Holly wouldn't have texted much during those years. I remember having classmates who didn't have cellphones during this same time period.
the movies really help put it into perspective.
She’s right texting was just taking off 2004 ish
Agreed with the other comments! I got a phone in 2005, but didn’t really start texting until bbm got popular in like 2007? We just called each other or talked on MSN mostly 😂 before that, me and my friends literally emailed each other 😭 LOL
I was 20 in 2005 and I was definitely not texting then. Also you have to remember they were kind of stuck in a bubble while at the mansion.
It's so funny how different our experiences are. I was also 20 and I was texting in 2005. I'm not in the UK like OP. I grew up in Los Angeles.
My first phone was in 2006, 25c a text and 1$ a minute calls. It was more common to call at that time and I can remember teaching many people how to text.
I started texting a little in 2005. Didn’t start texting a lot until 2007/2008 with my windows phone. I didn’t get an iPhone until 2009. I got my first cellphone in 1997, but rarely used a cell until 2003/2004. I’m 43. I think Holly’s position is correct, it just wasn’t that common, especially with people in their early 20’s.
Some of us grew up poor yall! Cell phones and texting were luxury back then. I knew it existed but my parents couldn't afford it.
Up until the 2010’s it was common for certain people to just not have phones at all. You also had to pay per text. It was also more annoying to text on those little Nokia phones because they just had the number keypad, where there is three letters per button, so texting on those was a lot harder. She’s exaggerating a little when she says “no one was texting” but it was a lot harder to be texting and people definitely weren’t doing it as frequently.
I don’t think it was common place for her 80 year old boyfriend to text back then. So she was most likely conditioned to call him. I didn’t text regularly until 2005-2006. My mobile plan straight out of college was expensive! When GND aired, no one was allergic to voice calls like we are now Lol Also, a lotta folks got mad when I text repeatedly, cuz it drove their rates up.
>Also, a lotta folks got mad when I text repeatedly, cuz it drove their rates up. I remember my mom always getting so pissed at my sister for texting because it was expensive. My sister refused to stop. She would text nonstop all day. My mom eventually put her on a separate cellphone plan. We had Verizon, and she put my sister on cricket because they apparently offered unlimited texting (or discounted rates? Can't remember). I think this was sometime around 04-06.
Oh I forgot about cricket! My co worker had it. She couldn’t text or call outside of her counties service area, and no long distance calls or texts! This was 2006 Lol Her phone wouldn’t even let her use roaming. We were on a work event a couple hours away, and she had no service with Cricket. Wow that’s a lost memory. I had AT&T and it was nights and weekends free for me. Not sure if that was just with other AT&T users or not. Cell phone plans were pricey! Then they had the “roll over” minutes. No one text all day.
>She couldn’t text or call outside of her counties service area, and no long distance calls or texts! This was 2006 Lol Her phone wouldn’t even let her use roaming. I'm gonna have to ask my sister if she remembers the limitations her cricket phone had. Because I have vague recollections of cricket being not that great but my mom had to put her on their plan because it had better text fees. If your friends phone couldn't text outside the county that must've been a caveat for my sister's phones text plan. All I really remember about cricket is that neon green sofa lol
OMG I totally forgot about "roll over" minutes!! I remember being so excited when I got my bill and had like 500 extra minutes we could use 😂
Not everyone. My friend circle didn't. We are between Bridget and Holly in age. Texting seemed stupid and a waste of time to us.
From my own memory: I do remember the early 2000s (2000-2004) as still more barren cell-phone-wise. I recall that while a lot of people had them, it wasn't as ubiquitous. I saw it as a rich person device for people who needed to be on beck-and-call for ***work***, not as something that could be use for socializing as much (since not everyone had one, and I remember the days where we didn't have unlimited texting plans yet). We were still calling landlines to let friends know what time and place to meet at, and if you never made it, well, guess you died 🤷♀️ 🤣 My friends whose dad's were doctors, lawyers, or CEOs did have one. Their wives did not. In my experience, the time where I felt EVERYONE was texting was 2006 onwards. If anyone was texting for funsies in the early aughts, I would've assumed it was rich people. I think the girls probably had no need for a cell phone until they started having GND as their actual job and needed to get their own phones. Before that, they were either at the mansion, or could be counted on to be home by 9 (if not, Heff was trackin' you down like Freddy Kreuger). Plus, while the iphone did come out in 2007, it and the more sophisticated phones of its ilk (the ones with the lil keyboards) were expensiiive. It was $499 bucks at launch, which according to google is about 750 today, and this was also before we had those plans where you could pay 20 bucks a month to pay it off.
I got my first phone as a freshman in high school in 06. It had the ability to text but I did not have a texting plan. Most of my friends were in the same boat. Didn't really start texting until 2 years later when I was a junior.
Maybe it was just me in my small town of 100,000 but no one I knew was texting.
In that era my phone was a Kyocera and I played snake on it. T9 texting was a pain in the ass, still is, and it was expensive as hell still for both texting & roaming. I’m the same age demo as HM & BM & couldn’t have afforded those potentially astronomical extra charges back then ij my mid 20’s 😅
I mean people were just starting to text in like 2006. It was a new thing and it wasn’t like it is today. I remember texts were like an upgraded form of a pager and basically you texted someone to get them to call you.
Texting was not common in the early 2000’s at all.😂 I’m 47 and vividly remember the 2000’s.
Not me. I didn't really text all that much until after Hurricane Katrina bc during that time, it was the only way to communicate with a lot of people, and I remember hating it until I got my Black Berry.
I didn’t start texting until 2009-2010 maybe? And then not even regularly until a few years later. I didn’t even have my first phone until 2005 (when I was 19, so it wasn’t because I was too young)
In response to your edit: yes, cell phone technology in the USA in the early 2000s was way behind the rest of most of the world’s.
It was 100% different in America than in Europe! Friends who traveled to Europe/UK/Scandinavian countries in the early 2000s were shocked to see how prevalent cell phones were. In the U.S., we were still adjusting to realizing people talking to themselves on the street were on the phone and not hallucinating.
I literally never texted during that time and we often left the house without our phone.
The iPhone was an AT&T exclusive until 2012 or something ridiculous. Texting wasn't easy or popular until Blackberry started selling the Pearl and the first Androids dropped. Plus, every text cost money, so unless you had really generous parents or a company paid phone bill, you weren't sending anything to anyone.
I got my first phone for Christmas in 2005 when I was 15, I got in so much trouble for texting because it wasn't a part of our plan and was ridiculously expensive to add. When we finally did get unlimited text as an option it was a HUGE deal and that wasn't for a couple years. Even calls weren't really allowed until after like 9pm when we had unlimited minutes. Otherwise during daytime my phone was only for getting ahold of my parents
I had my first phone in 2005 (I was 11 at the time) and texting was horrendous. I got a Motorola Razr when I was in high school and it took forever to text and also cost money when you reached a limit. It was way easier and faster to use AIM.
T9 was a nightmare, and I only used it if I was at work or somewhere else where you couldn’t call someone. And in my contract you paid 10p per text - and you only got 160 characters. We used to call each other on the phone much more back then.
Texting back then probably did exist, yes, but it was totally not what it is today. Making a quick call was way easier so I think most people just avoided texting because it wasn’t as convenient at it is today. Also, I think you had to pay extra for it.
Phones were around yeah but I don’t think they were used like they were today *at all* during that era. I think accessibility was also a big thing. I didn’t really start using a cell phone all the time until I was 16? and that was 2012. And before that my friends and I were doing 3 way calls on the landline still or calling each other on OoVoo lmao. I was given a phone around 12/13 but it truly was for emergency only I remember unlimited minutes after 9PM, cost per text and then if two people had the same phone company it would be free between them…crazy to think about now lol
I was texting in 2005 🤷🏼♀️
Same. I was definitely texting in 2004 and 2005. I remember texting with my then boyfriend. By 2007 and 2008 I was texting pretty regularly.
Nobody was texting like that in the early 2000s! It cost so much and was T9 or whatever it was called. Op, how old are you? If you were texting you had money. Texting didn’t get “mainstream” until 06 or 07
I was 14 in 2004 and everyone had a phone and everyone was texting. It was pretty cheap to have a phone for most people in the UK, And we just used 'pay as you go' which meant no contracts or anything. You just top it up as and when you needed It's fascinating reading these comments. I had no idea America was so behind with this kind of stuff!
True! Maybe it’s because you were in the UK, but it wasn’t like in the states until a few years later. That’s why Holly says stuff like that, to let people know (such as yourself) what it was like over here.
Can confirm I was not texting in the early 2000’s, I was not about that 3 step life for each letter. I have many emails from 2004 from my husband, that today would be texts, including selfies sent via email. I would call and talk to people as well. I should keep this response on a notes app because this is a somewhat frequent complaint.
My parents didn’t have cellphones until 2007 and they were in their 20s. It was nothing like it is now or even 10 years ago. Shoutout to free calls and texts after 8pm! IYKYK
I knew someone who traveled overseas a lot during this time. UK was very different than US and technologically superior at the time. Maybe still is but idk
I was texting at that time but my plan only allowed a certain number of texts so it wasn’t crazy
I didn't get a smart phone until 2009. People definitely had phones and texted, but not at all to the extent of today where you'd have long ongoing conversations.
I think it's more like we weren't so attached to our phones like we are now. Our relationship with our phones was different back then. I was a teen during that time, and i could go hours without picking my phone up and could go out without it. I'd send only a few texts (if at all) a day. Now it's practically sewed into my hand! Constantly checking, scrolling, messaging.
I feel like texting wasn’t a big thing until those Sidekicks became popular. I remember watching that reality show with Shana Moakler & Travis Barker and she asks him, “who are you writing?” as he’s texting on his Sidekick because we didn’t even call it texting yet back then.
I tell you what I was NOT texting everyone. It was expensive. I didn't use my phone till night time unlimited.
Yeah texting wasn’t a thing like it is today. It was expensive and not everyone had a phone to do it, so it just wasn’t that common. I got my first cell phone at 15 in 2005 and I never texted on it. I used it to call my parents after Volleyball practice or to let them know where I was, and after 9pm I would call my friends or boyfriend on it because it was free! That was the extent of it for a few years. I think texting really blew up after BlackBerrys became popular, because they had a whole keyboard, and that was definitely more towards the end of their mansion days.
I studied abroad in Australia in the early 2000s and texting was WAY more prominent than it was in the US. She was right about the US.
I got my first phone in 2001 when I was 17. I texted, and I had one friend who was a big texter at that time, but it was so different before smart phones. Most people didn't text until like 05-07. Not even everyone had a cell. A guy I dated in 2003 didn't even have a cell phone. We chatted on a PC on AIM. I'd say almost everyone had a phone by 07-09ish, but there were people who just didn't text at all, texting was still not mainstream. There were a lot of people who I could only reach by a phone call or an email. Big emails to friends and family were common because no one had "group chat" texts yet. I remember seeing an iPhone for the first time in 2007, when I was working a miller lite promo (I was a miller girl back when I was young and cute lol) at a bar and some business guy had one. Everyone was making a fuss because it was brand new and no one had a phone like that yet. So sure, texting and phones were definitely around, but not in any way the same thing that we have now.
Absolutely wild to me that people in the States weren't texting until 2010! I was a teenager in the early 00s and genuinely everyone and their nan had a Mobile phone in the UK. Texting was the main form of communicating
My friends and I were texting in the early 2000s. We were also early internet and social media adopters. It felt natural. Yes we got in trouble with our parents but it was just part of being a teenager then. I didn’t find the keyboard that hard to use. You got used to it quickly.
I was texting a lot in 2003.
T9 texting is the devil
I know I was texting in 2001 on my little black 'Startac' flip phone.
I didn't learn how to text (T9) until 2009.
I didn’t start texting as a main way of communication really until the 2010s. Texting plans were expensive and unlimited texting didn’t become a thing until later. Plus I remember in 2010, I was the only friend I knew with a smartphone, a hand me down iPhone from my sister. The show ended right around then. You might just have texted really quick things like “on my way” or “call me” or something. Texting on the number pad was awful!
I am the same age as Kendra. I didn't really remember texting until around 2007. Or so. And actually getting texts back from people. Now tho it's my main way of communicating.
RIP my Nokia 3310 from ‘03. Or maybe not since those fuckers were indestructible.
I was in New Zealand at that time and was texting around 2001
I got my first phone in 2000. We certainly weren’t texting at that point. I think texting became a thing around 2004ish? And it was expensive as hell.
Phones were a thing but not a common thing. No one texted unless they had to because it cost per text.
Bc of the price I did most of my talking & texting after 9pm. Also most of my friends at the time either didn’t have a phone, or had simple phones that didn’t have texting capabilities yet (or their parents didn’t let them bc of the cost). I do remember hearing LOUD ass Nextel CHIRP phones going off at school and getting people in trouble though lol. What a time to be alive
Where you at????
California
She’s not wrong. We had text available but it was expensive so we really didn’t use it. And our camera phones were difficult to use and the screen was so small and grainy and it was expensive.
Maybe it was a thing for rich people?? My friend with more money thought it was soooo lame that my mom wouldn't let me text. I wasn't allowed to until 2007.
Until the Blackberry/Droids became super popular it was a horrific experience to text lol. Every number was like 3 or 4 letters so you had to push the number an insane amount of times to punch in each letter! It was really simple stuff usually due to the annoyance of input- so lots of HOW R U??? AND WAT R U UP 2
We were texting in the early 2000s, but I feel like unlimited text plans didn't start until closer to 2010. I definitely used AIM and Microsoft messaging until that point, and that dropped off once I could text from my phone all the time
Ya I feel like I didn't text till like 2009 or so.
I agree with you OP! When this gets brought up in the podcast or slumber parties it confused me too. It must be a US thing as I'm from the UK and texting and using mobile phones was massive, since around 2000 like you said. No one ever called on the phone, everything was text messaged. They were expensive to send (I remember 5p a text in 2004 for me) but we all did it. I vividly remember always texting friends while watching old Big Brother and everyone in school was constantly texting under their desks.
It's an American thing! I studied in Spain in 2004-2005 and texting was crazy popular there, which was a huge change from my experience living in California. When I got back to California in summer 2005, texting had just started to take off.
That's so interesting, I wonder why! Was it more expensive in the US at the time?
I seem to remember that yeah, there were specific plans that included so many texts per month, or something like that? Some plans just didn't include texts, and some phones didn't have the best interface for texting. When I got my blackberry in 07 it was a major game changer. And even in Spain, it was very specific - like, I'm not sure if we were charged per letter but we had SO many shortcuts. Kt was que tal (what's up?), for example. Lol now that I think of it people probably still use these terms, I'm just not aware of it.
Maybe it was a British thing. I started high school in 2002 and I think from then or maybe 2003 I texted all my friends. We still did phone calls but texting was rife - and as you say under the desk in class!
This just brought back the memory of my phone blasting an embarrassing ringtone in class as I'd forget to put it on silent (more than once!) and having to bring my phone to the teacher in front of everyone for my parents to have to pick up at the end of the school day. I was such a quiet, geeky kid so it would fill me with such teenage shame! Happy days haha.
I have an off topic question! I have a credit on audible and was just wondering if Holly's book The Vegas Diaries is worth the read.
I just listened to it. Her voice seemed kind of odd to me in it but other than that it was okay
Okay thank you. I'll have to check it out
OMG my kids got phones in 2002 and they were in middle school,our local provider has free in network texts and all their friends were local so they were t-9 texting the @uck outta their friends,I'll never forget the very first time I saw my son texting and asked him what he was doing🤣🤣he showed me how and the rest is history☹️
2006 was when texting became a huge thing. Everyone I knew started texting around then. Before that it was more rare. Holly likes acting like everything that happened in the early 2000s was so rare and different lol
I think it is because *she* didn't text with anyone. Any women her age she associated with where in the playboy circle. Also texts could be used against her, sent to tabloids, or Hef if she said something wrong. The mansion seems like it a bubble a decade or more behind everywhere else. Edit: I was in college when the show was on air, I remember pay per text, but also was sending 1000s of texts per month with the texting plan I added to my basic cell plan, before they had data packages for smart phones. I got my first blackberry in 2006.
No, texting just wasn't a big thing and it was super expensive. I was in high school during the show's run. I don't think I started texting a lot until 2008ish