I have never owned a cellphone..curious, what year did they become a necessity?

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

25. For me it was about 1996, when my younger son

got sick at school twice in a couple of weeks. They couldn't reach me to tell me I needed to pick him up because I wasn't home. Fortunately we were required to have a back-up emergency contact, and that friend got him both times.

For several years I used it rarely. Even now, I'm not big on the cell phone. I don't have a smart phone, see no real need for one and keep on hearing too many stories about them and how they malfunction or won't update and you're forced into spending hundreds -- or is it thousands? -- of dollars for a new one. No, thank you.

Plus, I can hear better on the landline.

Plenty of people can function quite well without one. It simply depends on your personal situation, perhaps your job.

Oh, and I'm 70.

The real answer is that there is no one specific year when they became a necessity for everyone.