Operation: Titanic

[MacGyver]

In rereading this old thread, another thought came to mind. If I recall correctly, it seems Frank and Joe and Nancy did connect a lot via cell phones throughout the book but just didn't meet in person until near the end. That seems to oddly enough be fairly current now with the way so many people tend to connect more via texting and social media than actually being together in person. And with the Covid-19 pandemic and so many things being pushed to virtual connections only, it seems even more fitting.
   

[Hardy Boys UB Fan]

In rereading this old thread, another thought came to mind. If I recall correctly, it seems Frank and Joe and Nancy did connect a lot via cell phones throughout the book but just didn't meet in person until near the end. That seems to oddly enough be fairly current now with the way so many people tend to connect more via texting and social media than actually being together in person. And with the Covid-19 pandemic and so many things being pushed to virtual connections only, it seems even more fitting.
   

Yeah, I noted that as well. I wonder why they didn't text, use Facebook or some other government smartphone app.

[MacGyver]

Smartphones weren't existent in 1997, and neither was Facebook and social media or texting. Making telephone calls on cell phones was the high tech thing of the day. The current day technology certainly makes a big difference in how the stories are told. In some ways, I prefer reading older books like these- and watching older TV shows for that matter- because the characters don't have the plethora of technological hacks available now. It was more challenging then, I think.

[tomswift2002]

Also in 1997, cell services were still analog.

[Hardy Boys UB Fan]

Also in 1997, cell services were still analog.

I was like seven in 97, so I don't remember life without a cell phone having the ability to send and receive at least texts and pictures.

[tomswift2002]

I was like seven in 97, so I don't remember life without a cell phone having the ability to send and receive at least texts and pictures.

97 I was only 13, and I didn't live in a huge metropolitan area, so I didn't see them around a lot.  But just looking online, it looks like digital didn't come out till around 1999.

[MacGyver]

If we're all telling our ages here, I was 15 then and I can well remember life before cell phones were so dominant. I remember using car phones and pay phones and rotary phones growing up. It was a different world for sure.

[NZone]

I didn't get a smartphone until after the democrats took the house during the trump administration

[Raven]

I got my first cell phone around 2000. It was a Motorola. You could only make calls on it.

[tomswift2002]

My first cell phone was in 2004 and it was able to use both analog and digital signals (digital was the primary but if I wanted to I could force it into analog, or if I was too far from a tower for digital then it would switch to analog automatically without dropping the signal).  I could read emails and do some very limited web surfing.