# A question for those who went to high school in the '90s: What was the deal with beepers? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [April 14, 2010, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-for-those-who-went-to-high-school-in-the-90s-what-was-the-deal-with-beepers/536061 "2010-04-14T13:57:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![NinetyWt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/cc9497/32.png) [@NinetyWt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NinetyWt)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2010, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-for-those-who-went-to-high-school-in-the-90s-what-was-the-deal-with-beepers/536061/21 "2010-04-14T16:07:46Z")
My daughter graduated high school in 2003. I remember getting her a pager sometime during the junior high/high school years. It was a way for me to keep up with her whereabouts; and I could page her to come home if I needed her. Her younger brother never had one because cell phones came along and he had one of those instead. ---
**Author:** ![stargazer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/eb8c5e/32.png) [@stargazer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stargazer)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2010, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-for-those-who-went-to-high-school-in-the-90s-what-was-the-deal-with-beepers/536061/22 "2010-04-14T16:44:32Z")
I graduated from high school in 1996 in the Bay Area, and I had one - but I don’t think I got it until close to graduation. A lot of my friends had them. It was a convenient way to keep in touch without always involving the family landline, and it let my folks keep tabs on me, too. We definitely used codes in addition to just phone numbers, but I don’t remember many of them now. I had to pay for it myself - my parents didn’t really see the need for me to have one, so they wouldn’t pay for it - but I don’t remember how much it cost. I’m guessing it was in the $10-20/month range, because I wouldn’t have paid much more than that. I used it for a couple of summers, mostly (it was totally unnecessary at college), with my friends from high school. Then cell phones started becoming affordable and pagers went out. It’s funny, I remember telling someone how great the pager thing was, and that I didn’t want a cell phone - I didn’t want to be always available, on a “digital leash.” Yeah, that didn’t last too long… ---
**Author:** ![garygnu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garygnu/32/2924_2.png) [@garygnu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/garygnu)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2010, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-for-those-who-went-to-high-school-in-the-90s-what-was-the-deal-with-beepers/536061/23 "2010-04-14T16:59:16Z")
Weird, I graduated high school in 1996 in the Bay Area. I think my parents got me my first beeper as a graduation present. It was, essentially, a cheap (emphasis on cheap) digital leash. Then I moved out and my fiance became the holder of the leash. I can still remember the cute little, stupid codes. 911/811/411 - varying degrees of urgency 1 70173 4017 - I love you 1 177155 4017 - I miss you (Yeah, there was a whole alphabet that was often completely illegible.) ---
**Author:** ![robardin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/43a26b/32.png) [@robardin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robardin)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2010, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-for-those-who-went-to-high-school-in-the-90s-what-was-the-deal-with-beepers/536061/24 "2010-04-14T17:09:20Z")
For a while there was also such a thing as a text pager. I carried one for work purposes, and various computer systems would alert me via email if something happened, and it would go to my pager.\* These were still useful even long after I had a cellphone because text messaging wasn’t really available until the early/mid 2000s, certainly would have been much more expensive, and the company was not going to be providing me with a cellphone but a pager was pretty cheap. There was also an 800 number you could call to have a text page sent “on the fly”. I definitely remember using my cell phone to call in a text page to someone else. In fact I remember my reaction when they started offering text messaging on cell phones for some absurd charge, like $0.10 per message. “Isn’t this just a text pager function? If I have a cell phone… And so does the other person… Why wouldn’t I just make a PHONE CALL?” Pagers also got - and continue to get - far better reception than cell phones, they need almost no signal. And Doctors and nurses still use them, for example, in “no cellphone” zones where the RF signals would cause interference for sensitive equipment. \*I wrote the software scripts to watch for and send the alerts, usually between 10pm and 6am my time, which I hated. Being handed the pager and told to write those scripts felt a lot like those guys who are forced to dig their own grave before they get shot in the back of the head to fall into it. ---
**Author:** ![Maeglin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8baadc/32.png) [@Maeglin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maeglin)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2010, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-for-those-who-went-to-high-school-in-the-90s-what-was-the-deal-with-beepers/536061/25 "2010-04-14T17:09:40Z")
I graduated in 96 in New York. If you had a beeper, you were dealing. This was quite well understood at the time. ---
**Author:** ![Richie\_Incognito](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e36b37/32.png) [@Richie\_Incognito](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richie_Incognito)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2010, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-for-those-who-went-to-high-school-in-the-90s-what-was-the-deal-with-beepers/536061/26 "2010-04-14T18:10:38Z")
I’m not sure what’s not to get. Beepers had gotten to a point where they were very cheap. In 1999, the beeper I had was under $10 a month. Before cell phones, beepers were quite useful in contacting your friends. If you had no cell phone, beepers make a whole lot of sense. ---
**Author:** ![Rafe\_Hollister](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/fbc32d/32.png) [@Rafe\_Hollister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rafe_Hollister)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2010, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-for-those-who-went-to-high-school-in-the-90s-what-was-the-deal-with-beepers/536061/27 "2010-04-14T18:59:14Z")
I’ll add another one: A college roommate in '94 & '95 was banging his neighbor’s wife. They had beepers that they could set to vibrate and would have long-distance sex. It was funny to get the phone bills and have several hundred 2 or 3 cent charges to Denise’s beeper. ---
**Author:** ![joebuck20](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/74df32/32.png) [@joebuck20](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joebuck20)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2010, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-for-those-who-went-to-high-school-in-the-90s-what-was-the-deal-with-beepers/536061/28 "2010-04-14T19:06:11Z")
> [@Rafe\_Hollister](#): > > I’ll add another one: > > A college roommate in '94 & '95 was banging his neighbor’s wife. They had beepers that they could set to vibrate and would have long-distance sex. It was funny to get the phone bills and have several hundred 2 or 3 cent charges to Denise’s beeper. :eek: ---
**Author:** ![dalej42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@dalej42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dalej42)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2010, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-for-those-who-went-to-high-school-in-the-90s-what-was-the-deal-with-beepers/536061/29 "2010-04-14T19:21:28Z")
Also, mine had the ability for the caller to leave a voice mail. This was handy if you shared a landline and didn’t want others to hear your personal messages. ---
**Author:** ![zweisamkeit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zweisamkeit/32/4360_2.png) [@zweisamkeit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zweisamkeit)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2010, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-for-those-who-went-to-high-school-in-the-90s-what-was-the-deal-with-beepers/536061/30 "2010-04-14T19:27:24Z")
> [@ivan\_astikov](#): > > 11 posts before a correct answer! I’m a little disappointed, dopers. All I had to do was read the title of the thread and mentally answered, “drug dealing”. ---
**Author:** ![acolva02](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3be4f8/32.png) [@acolva02](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/acolva02)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2010, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-for-those-who-went-to-high-school-in-the-90s-what-was-the-deal-with-beepers/536061/31 "2010-04-14T22:44:37Z")
my husband (police officer) still has one for work that scrolls a message across the screen. They inform them of severe weather, death or births in his co-worker’s familys and he gets info about where to meet for SWAT call outs or bomb threats. Seems like a very effective gadget. This is different though, right? ---
**Author:** ![missouri65](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/74df32/32.png) [@missouri65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/missouri65)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2010, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-for-those-who-went-to-high-school-in-the-90s-what-was-the-deal-with-beepers/536061/32 "2010-04-14T23:09:28Z")
The very first season of the Real World (maybe even the very first episode) had a scene where one of the black roommates had a beeper that went off. Naive Julie from Alabama said something like, “Are you a drug dealer? Why do you have a beeper?” Much racial tension ensued, and I don’t think it was ever really resolved. MTV played that clip into the ground. If beepers weren’t associated with drug dealing prior to 1992, they certainly were after that show aired. I never knew anyone with a beeper. Our volunteer firefighters carried what looked like walkie talkies that would randomly start talking in the middle of class. By graduation, several of my friends had cell phones. ---
**Author:** ![Least\_Original\_User\_Name\_Ever](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e480ec/32.png) [@Least\_Original\_User\_Name\_Ever](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Least_Original_User_Name_Ever)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2010, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-for-those-who-went-to-high-school-in-the-90s-what-was-the-deal-with-beepers/536061/33 "2010-04-14T23:57:43Z")
> [@zweisamkeit](#): > > All I had to do was read the title of the thread and mentally answered, “drug dealing”. Welcome to Southeast Michigan. Here’s your peeper and pound of weed. Have it sold by the end of the week, or else Big Worm is going to be looking for you. ---
**Author:** ![WomanofScorn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/b5a626/32.png) [@WomanofScorn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WomanofScorn)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2010, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-for-those-who-went-to-high-school-in-the-90s-what-was-the-deal-with-beepers/536061/34 "2010-04-15T00:15:21Z")
> [@steadierfooting](#): > > I graduated highschool in 2000. Everyone had one my junior and senior year. It’s the same justifications as people having cell phones now. > I had a lot of friends and we were always in random spots hanging out every day after school and weekends. So it was an easy way to get friends to find out where everybody was easily. Parents to get ahold of you for when they were on their way to pick you up. Work to get a hold of you, etc. There were payphones all over the place so it was cheap and easy to contact someone. > > It was only like $10 a month, so not much money. The fad lasted pretty quickly though, I think only like 2 years. Then people started getting cell phones, and although only a few people in the group had one it was easy enough to borrow them or set up a phone tree that way. I graduated in '98. This is exactly why I had a beeper. ---
**Author:** ![Red\_Stilettos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/fbc32d/32.png) [@Red\_Stilettos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Red_Stilettos)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2010, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-for-those-who-went-to-high-school-in-the-90s-what-was-the-deal-with-beepers/536061/35 "2010-04-15T01:09:10Z")
I graduated in 1994. My boyfriend had a beeper and it was simply to be cool. He liked telling people to “page him”, like a doctor. As others have said, we developed codes (i.e.-911=call me now), but I can’t remember most of them. Mainly, he just wanted me to page him so that he could make a big show out of answering it. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2010, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-for-those-who-went-to-high-school-in-the-90s-what-was-the-deal-with-beepers/536061/36 "2010-04-15T02:33:40Z")
I know that my youth pastor used 143 to mean I love you. Can you guess why? And I wish I had a beeper or phone, as I always had to stay after school late, and got actually having to sit there and wait on them. When I got to carry a phone (on trips), they’d actually call me to tell me they were on their way, so I knew to wrap up talking to the other people who had to stay around late, and be getting outside. ---
**Author:** ![DCnDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dcndc/32/2842_2.png) [@DCnDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DCnDC)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2010, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-for-those-who-went-to-high-school-in-the-90s-what-was-the-deal-with-beepers/536061/37 "2010-04-15T02:40:40Z")
I graduated in '95, just outside DC and almost all my friends had one. We weren’t drug dealers or anything like that, it was just a way to keep in contact with each other. I had that thing right up to the early 2000’s. In fact I still list my friends in my cell phone by their pager code. ---
**Author:** ![lezlers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/258eb7/32.png) [@lezlers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lezlers)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2010, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-for-those-who-went-to-high-school-in-the-90s-what-was-the-deal-with-beepers/536061/38 "2010-04-15T23:09:10Z")
> [@stargazer](#): > > I graduated from high school in 1996 in the Bay Area, and I had one - but I don’t think I got it until close to graduation. A lot of my friends had them. It was a convenient way to keep in touch without always involving the family landline, and it let my folks keep tabs on me, too. We definitely used codes in addition to just phone numbers, but I don’t remember many of them now… I graduated high school in the Bay Area in 96 too. I got a pager for my 18th bday, senior year. They were used like cell phones basically, to get in touch with your friends wherever and whenever, and to speak in code. We also had codes for each other, so you’d write something, then put in your code as your signature. Mine was 18. So I’d page my boyfriend with: 143-18. Ah, early technology. I actually totaled my car (one of 3 in high school) because I was staring at my pager trying to figure out some code my boyfriend sent me when we were fighting instead of watching where the hell I was going. Good times. By the time I graduated, _everyone_ had pagers. They were as common as cell phones now. ---
**Author:** ![lezlers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/258eb7/32.png) [@lezlers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lezlers)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2010, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-for-those-who-went-to-high-school-in-the-90s-what-was-the-deal-with-beepers/536061/39 "2010-04-15T23:11:01Z")
[quote=“BigT, post:36, topic:536061”] I know that my youth pastor used 143 to mean I love you. Can you guess why?QUOTE] oooh oooh, I know! “I” has 1 letter. “Love” has 4 letters and “you” has three! What do I win??? ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2010, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-for-those-who-went-to-high-school-in-the-90s-what-was-the-deal-with-beepers/536061/40 "2010-04-16T00:50:17Z")
[quote=“lezlers, post:39, topic:536061”] > [@BigT](#): > > I know that my youth pastor used 143 to mean I love you. Can you guess why?QUOTE] > > oooh oooh, I know! “I” has 1 letter. “Love” has 4 letters and “you” has three! > > What do I win??? There are other four letter words besides ‘Love’ especially in that general context. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-for-those-who-went-to-high-school-in-the-90s-what-was-the-deal-with-beepers/536061.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-for-those-who-went-to-high-school-in-the-90s-what-was-the-deal-with-beepers/536061.md?page=3)