Panic Around Pagers: Old and New
Thirty years ago, parents worried bad people would place beepers on their kids. The risks have mutated.
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.
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…
