Before there was anything like Facebook chat or Skype --
Way before the dawn of texting and even the now-obsolete chatrooms --
We used the telephone, now called the "land phone". It was the choice device for bonding with a friend or with someone you wished to become more than just a friend.
I love this scene from Daria where Trent calls our female antagonistic protagonist. It's hilarious because that sort of thing really used to happen.
Just as teens today are known for obsessive texting, teens back then were scorned for talking on the phone too much. There could be all-night talkathons over nothing in particular, which, unless there was more than one line at home, rob everyone else in the household of phone usage until the next day. I knew a girl who talked to a guy for almost 24 hours straight. My own personal record is a mere 17.
To the disappointment of our grandparents who rue the demise of the handwritten loveletter, courtships and breakups could happen without having to see each other face-to-face. Guy calls girl, guy asks girl, girl says yes, they go out. It was cheap and despicable, right Nana? But what Nana didn't know and couldn't have possibly imagined was that people could even have sex over the phone. As tasteless as that was, it seems pretty tame now compared to sexting and cybersex, eh?
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