Mobile Change 2002

Article

A Guardian feature marking almost two decades of mobile phones in Britain, tracing the device’s journey from a 1985 novelty call by Ernie Wise to a near-ubiquitous fixture of daily life that had reshaped social behaviour, relationships and public space. Drawing on archive commentary and street-level observation, the piece reflects on how mobiles had already, by 2002, become woven into ordinary routines in ways once thought implausible.