What would happen if pay phones were to suddenly disappear? Would people be sad? Angry? Would they be happy? Would they even notice?
In today’s society, it seems every individual on the face of the earth has a cell phone. Why would they even consider using a pay phone? There would be no reason to put in a few quarters when you can make a call on your cell phone that is covered by your phone plan. Pay phones could be disappearing around us as we know it. It does not seem that far fetched as you might think; I have seen it happen.
Practically, all the pay phones we see around us were installed before or in the beginning of the cell phone era. Believe it or not, its use was made for normal humans like you and me. People used pay phones when they needed to make an important call. Now they simply collect dust and wait for their timely death.
The only reason why people did not fall in love with the pay phone is that it is large and stuck in the ground. Compare that with cell phones which are very small and mobile.
Cell phones are an improvement over the stationary pay phone, but they are slowly starting to disappear. Those who are not fortunate enough to have cell phones may not be so happy. After all, this is one of their main forms of communication when they are away from their home.
A place where pay phones are certain to be found are airports. But the next time you go, look for pay phones. You will see that they are in odd, hard-to-find corners of the airport. They used to be everywhere, but they have dwindled dramatically in the last 10 years, while cell phones have kept multiplying.
In fact, according to the Regional Review, “Since 1996, over 600,000 have been disconnected nationwide; meanwhile, cell phones have multiplied 11 times since 1993 to about 143 million today.” And these statistics are just from airports. There are even more that will be missing from other parts of our nation.
I saw this trend occurring at my local gas station. For the longest time, they had pay phones. Then, I would notice that the pay phone area would be the worst and dirtiest part of the gas station. It became really junky and no one would ever use them. Well now, it is no longer there; that part of the gas station is where their new car wash is.
More and more pay phones will start disappearing and believe it or not, it is not only due to cell phones. A lot of pay phones simply have low quality. How many times were you using a pay phone when the call did not go through or it got disconnected?
Many pay phones are dirty and trashy, further turning us off. With fewer pay phones, companies like Pacific Bell and South Bell have to compensate. “They are charging up to 50 cents per local call and $4 for just the first minute of a long distance call,” according to the Regional Review.
Many times they just eliminate their problem, or in other words, eliminate many of their pay phones and concentrate on another aspect of their business.
The death of the pay phone seems inevitable. Sure, a few will be left, but more and more will disappear making it even harder to find one. Even with all the cell phones out there, there are still many without them.
For those of us who have cell phones, we may not even care, but for those who do not and rely on payphones, there might be an important moment when they truly need one and it is not there anymore.
Daniel Macri is a junior film major and a weekly columnist for the Daily Forty-Niner.
