I got my first mobile phone (actually shared between myself and my twin) in '01, halfway through high school. It held phone numbers, had the ability to send and receive texts... and that was about it. I got my own phone in '03, though it didn't do much more, and held off getting an iPhone until something like '12.
The thing is, sharing a phone was fine when we went to the same school and only needed to make sure that whoever had after-school activities also had custody of the mobile. Once I started work, I needed a phone so that my job could contact me for a shift, so I could call home and tell my parents that I was about to finish and could they pick me up (I didn't have my own car at that point), or that I was running late but not to worry. In my previous job, my mobile was sometimes the only way to get in touch with my head of department.
In my current job, a mobile is a necessity. If a client wants to change the service mid-shift, if they aren't home, if I'm running late, if work needs to contact me about a cancellation or a shift that needs covering, If I have a question about something, if a client has been double-booked and we have to figure out which one of us gets to go home, if if if...
Phones may not have been as widespread back then as they are now (the most hilarious class I ever taught was one where millennial had to figure out how mankind functioned before there was an app for everything), but pretty much everyone who worked long/unpredictable hours (yes, that includes teachers) had one, just in case.
Also, "Pretentious, party of one"! Your friends were probably worried about exactly this scenario: that you'd be flitting off to some ass-end-of-nowhere town, get into trouble, and no-one would be able to contact you! And who talks about their friends like that, or gloats about saying 'I told you so' in the face of hypothetical cancer?
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The thing is, sharing a phone was fine when we went to the same school and only needed to make sure that whoever had after-school activities also had custody of the mobile.
Once I started work, I needed a phone so that my job could contact me for a shift, so I could call home and tell my parents that I was about to finish and could they pick me up (I didn't have my own car at that point), or that I was running late but not to worry. In my previous job, my mobile was sometimes the only way to get in touch with my head of department.
In my current job, a mobile is a necessity. If a client wants to change the service mid-shift, if they aren't home, if I'm running late, if work needs to contact me about a cancellation or a shift that needs covering, If I have a question about something, if a client has been double-booked and we have to figure out which one of us gets to go home, if if if...
Phones may not have been as widespread back then as they are now (the most hilarious class I ever taught was one where millennial had to figure out how mankind functioned before there was an app for everything), but pretty much everyone who worked long/unpredictable hours (yes, that includes teachers) had one, just in case.
Also, "Pretentious, party of one"! Your friends were probably worried about exactly this scenario: that you'd be flitting off to some ass-end-of-nowhere town, get into trouble, and no-one would be able to contact you! And who talks about their friends like that, or gloats about saying 'I told you so' in the face of hypothetical cancer?