19 Reminders Of What It Was Like To Have A Flip Phone (Once The Peak Of Technology)

1.Pulling the antenna out with your teeth whenever you were going to make a call and pushing it back down with your chin when you were done with the call.

Red arrow pointing at phone antenna
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2.Fiddling with the antenna and moving around to all sorts of different spots if you had bad reception (which, LBH, old phones had finicky reception, so it happened pretty regularly).

Verizon

3.Occasionally biting on the phone's antenna when you were bored or lost in thought.

Close-up of a shirtless young man biting on a phone's antenna
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4.Having to squint while looking at the outside screen to see what time it was or who was calling you.

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5.Knowing exactly how to angle your phone in order to take a perfect selfie.

Samantha Mumba
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6.And knowing just how to angle your phone in order to capture everyone in a group selfie.

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7.Patiently waiting for those low-res photos that your friends texted you to download onto your phone.

Close-up of a young man holding a mobile phone
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8.Accessorizing your phone with charms — that would get caught on everything in your bag or pocket.

Young woman using cellphone decorated with charms
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9.Or accessorizing your phone with crystals — that would eventually start falling off, leaving weird hot-glue spots.

10.Answering your phone in a dramatic fashion.

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11.And dramatically slamming your phone shut when you were over a call.

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12.Having to put your phone on full volume if you wanted a friend to hear a voicemail ('cause most flip phones did not have speakerphone options).

Two guys listening on to a phone in between both of them
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13.Recording a ringtone you wanted off the radio.

Meme of woman recording ringtone in car

14.Being amazed by the color video graphics that would play when you turned on your phone. (It felt like the future!)

Motorola

15.If you changed phones often, having a collection of different chargers from all your phones (since none of them ever seemed to be universal).

Stock image of different chargers

16.Having to manually (and annoyingly) input every single one of your contacts whenever you changed phones.

Handing pressing down on buttons
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17.Having to call yourself, listen to your outgoing greeting, and then press your code in order to listen to your voicemails.

Woman in pink suit on phone while standing on subway platform
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18.Being able to write the perfect text — that included everything you wanted to say — in 160 characters or fewer.

Warner Bros.

19.And finally, freaking out whenever you accidentally hit the internet button on your phone, and literally feeling as if that half second you attempted to get online would cost you $50!

A flip phone screen connecting to the internet