When the author described his families newly installed phone in the 1900s, it brought up very similar feelings that i could relate to even as child of the 1990s. Phones had been around for some time but I clearly remember my first few experiences been terrifyingly exciting. I would swap phone numbers and set up calls for after school with my friends, and unknown to my parents, I would wait for the 'alarm signal to go off'. To their surprise the the call was for me. I would sheepishly take the call with, heart thumping to find out who the voice on the other end was and if it was a boy that was calling I was terrified to say anything at all due to lake of privacy so those calls would never last long! Its interesting to see how quickly changes in communication have happened so rapidly in the past 30 years compared to the previous 100 years. It makes me think about how the ease of access to mobile phones is changing communication in the world, particularly among younger generations that see mobile phones as the norm and will never experience the good old fashioned house phone