ISTANBUL

The telephone has evolved from a simple wired voice transmitter into the smartphones that dominate modern communication and digital life, 150 years after the first phone call was made.

Scottish-American inventor Alexander Graham Bell made the first telephone call in Boston on March 10, 1876, using his newly patented device to contact his assistant in an adjacent room.

The early technology was initially used for short-distance communication between rooms but quickly expanded across the US through pole-mounted cables.

This expansion eventually enabled Bell and his assistant to make the first transcontinental telephone call in 1915.

The technology reached the Ottoman Empire by 1908. In 1926, the Republic of Türkiye established its first automatic telephone exchange in Ankara under the direction of the country’s founder Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.

The invention required several more decades to mature into a common household utility before advances in satellite and wireless technologies gradually reduced dependence on physical cables.

The modern era of mobile communication began in 1973 when Motorola executive Martin Cooper demonstrated the world’s first portable mobile phone, paving the way for commercial cellular devices a decade later.

Technological change accelerated with the arrival of camera phones in 1999, followed by the introduction of touchscreen smartphones in 2007.

Over time, mobile phones evolved from basic communication tools into central platforms for social interaction, education, commerce and entertainment as internet speeds and digital services expanded worldwide.

According to the Digital 2026 report by We Are Social and Meltwater, about 5.78 billion people globally now use mobile phones.

This represents roughly 70% of the world’s population, while smartphones account for nearly 94% of active mobile devices.

The rise of smart technology has significantly increased the time people spend online compared with the early years of mobile phones, when usage was limited by high costs and basic functionality.

The report found that people worldwide spend an average of six hours and 43 minutes connected to the internet each day.

Mobile devices account for the largest share of this activity, with users spending an average of four hours and two minutes online through their phones daily.

Around 60% of global internet traffic now comes through mobile phones.

The average global user spends nearly two and a half hours per day scrolling social media platforms on their phones.

In Türkiye, digital usage exceeds global averages. Internet users spend around seven hours and 15 minutes online daily, including four hours and 35 minutes using smartphones and nearly three hours on social media applications.

From its beginnings as an experimental voice transmission over copper wire, the telephone has evolved into a digital ecosystem that now commands a large share of humanity’s daily attention.

* Writing by Emir Yildirim