Aren't phones great? You can use your phone to do everything from listen to your favorite songs to track your workout goals to check your favorite music news website -- which we know is Diffuser -- anywhere you may happen to be. You can do all of this at home, on the bus, at work, during Thanksgiving dinner while your dad gives his drunken speech -- just about anywhere at all, really.

Some of our younger readers may be surprised to discover, though, that such was not always the case. There was a time in our history when smartphones weren't a thing. If we go back a little further in time, we discover that cellphones weren't always around either.

And if we keep traversing the murky waters of our history, we find that all phones, which were then confined to homes, businesses and public booths, were tethered to a wall via a wire. How did people live in such barbaric circumstances?

Today's video shows us what was, at the time, the promise of a brighter future -- a future where we would be freed from the tyranny of wires and being required to be at home (or at least have some loose change in our pockets) to make a telephone call.

This video shows people living the happy, full lives they deserve, being enabled to leave the prison-like confines of their own homes while still being able to call their friends and loved ones.

These giant phones looked more like cheap, plastic bricks than high-tech communication devices, but they served their purpose: to let us enjoy some sunlight on our face while we tried to get off the phone with our chatty mothers.

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