Panic Around Pagers: Old and New

Thirty years ago, parents worried bad people would place beepers on their kids. The risks have mutated.

Tucker Lieberman

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cartoon of a teenage girl in fashionable clothes holding a journal or a tech device to her chin. in the background, her artsy desk with a purple rolly chair. behind that is a glowing green computer-chip-inspired background.
Girl by Majabel, background by Prawny, both from Pixabay

Pagers were used today, September 17, 2024, as weapons of war in Lebanon and Syria when hundreds of devices exploded simultaneously on Hezbollah members.

This event reminds me of a story about pagers from three decades ago. I’m not a security expert. Today, I’m just a storyteller.

Adults Wore Beepers, and They Caught On With Kids

In the 1980s, car phones (early mobile phones) were large and expensive and didn’t widely catch on.

Pagers, sometimes called “beepers,” were more portable. All these devices did was beep. But that was something.

Adults used them for work. When an employee heard the beep, they knew the boss wanted them.

CBC news in 1991 showing a person turning off a beeper clipped to their pants. It’s a simple black device with tiny buttons.
Video still from a CBC news television segment, 1991

Teenagers were rumored to use beepers to communicate with drug dealers. Police in the 1980s believed this. Therefore, as Jocelyn Stewart wrote for the Los Angeles Times:

many school districts banned the devices from…

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