90's Tech: The Impact of the "Pager" on Daily Life

By the mid-1990s roughly 25 million to 61 million people (by some estimates) were using pagers for both personal and business use. Considered as the early foundations of text messaging, widespread use began to bloom when the implementation of alphanumeric messaging unlocked the full potential of the pager.

The original Motorola Advisor, released in 1990, was part of the first leading brand pagers to provide the alphanumeric messaging system - up to four lines of text with up to 20 characters per line. It could be set to receive individual pages but also included up to three additional group pages. While being sleek and compact it could also show the time/date & included an alarm clock function.

In our modern day some doctors still use pagers because the messages are more secure and their transmission is more reliable; this fact also being the basis of alleged historical interest from drug-dealers.

Years later the cell-phone began it’s obvious meteoric rise and growing widespread, overtaking the compact-handheld-tech-accessory spotlight as the pager began to lose its civilian marketing relevance.

While not super common, the more talented & artistic enthusiasts were able to paint the outer shell & decorate their pager, showcasing an interesting innovation from the dynamic of ‘tech meets fashion’ side effect. For some, it became a statement and held value in stylistic context.

In a world advancing as quick as ours the possibilities of a future where self-expression becomes ingrained with our ‘external/internal devices’ is becoming more and more vast. 

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[Images sourced from the original Hackers film & Custom Pager by Mike Dank - famicoman.com]