HAPPY Alexander Graham Bell Day!
On March 7, 1876, Bell patented the telephone, an invention that shrank the world and transformed human connection.
For an hour or two, in his memory, let’s try something radical: call someone for a proper natter instead of doom-scrolling for hours — or maybe even turn your cell phone to silent and enjoy chatting with the people you’re actually with. Yes, I know, it sounds mad.
I do wonder what the great Scottish innovator would make of our relationship with his creation today— a device now used less for chitter chatter and more for playing Candy Crush, mindless memes and addictive apps.
There follows a tale that changed my thoughts on the phone for good.
Once upon a time, I found myself at the Thinking Digital Conference at The Glasshouse in Gateshead — the venue formerly known as The Sage.
Picture inspirational TED Talks crossed with Tomorrow’s World (an old TV show about the future), delivered to an audience of geeks, tech founders and Steve Jobs fans, all hosted by the effortlessly cool American, Herb Kim MBE. It is brilliant, take the family!
During one of the breaks, I was trying to take in the latest ground breaking ideas from brain boxes and boffins, when a man approached me.
He said he was from Barnard Castle, his name was Alexander Bell, and he wondered if he could come on my BBC radio show to talk about telephones.
For a moment I did wonder whether he believed himself to be possessed by the spirit of the late Scottish inventor.
Thankfully, it turned out to be his real name – and he WAS and IS an excellent speaker on technology.
Alexander wanted to use the centenary of his namesake’s death as an opportunity to ask listeners to turn off their phones.
When Bell died in 1922, more than 14 million telephones in the US and Canada fell silent for one minute during his funeral – a powerful tribute to the man who helped the world communicate better.
As much as Alexander (from Barnard Castle) Bell loves the invention and the legacy of his namesake, he is equally passionate about warning against the overuse of smartphones and raising awareness of the need for digital balance.
It remains one of my favourite interviews at the BBC as it still makes me think about how much I use the phone to this day.
So to both Alexander Bells, I’ll pick up my phone today to have an actual chat with someone instead of losing two hours trawling through endless videos of people falling off ladders!!
As Bob Hoskins famously reminded us in the old BT advert: “It’s good to talk.”
FACTS AND FOOTNOTES
- Buzby was a yellow (later orange) talking cartoon bird, launched in 1976 as part of a marketing campaign by BT, voiced by Bernard Cribbins
- In the 1987 BT advert, Maureen Lipman played Beattie, a chatty grandmother on the phone to her grandson
- The Thinking Digital Conference, in Gateshead this year is May 20 and 21
