![\"beeper\"](\"http:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/hiv-id-observations\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2010\/04\/beeper1.jpg\" "\\"beeper\\"")
I was going through security at the airport the other day, and tossed my beeper into one of those gray bins — along with the device that should make the beeper superfluous, a cell phone.<\/p>\nI was going through security at the airport the other day, and tossed my beeper into one of those gray bins — along with the device that should make the beeper superfluous, a cell phone.<\/p>\n
“I didn’t know anyone used beepers anymore,” said the 30-something guy behind me.<\/p>\n
What could I say?\u00a0 That doctors also use typewriters, buggy whips, and ice boxes?<\/p>\n
But those are really the wrong comparisons — better is something more early-90s, like this “mobile phone<\/a>.”\u00a0 For a while back then, beepers were quite the status symbol among the junior high school set — especially if they were made of clear, teal-colored plastic.<\/p>\n And while teenagers have long ago moved on, virtually every doctor I know still carries a beeper.\u00a0 One of my un-named colleagues (at and un-named hospital in an un-named city) became so frustrated by having to carry two devices that he hacked into his hospital’s paging system.\u00a0 He now gets pages on his cell phone as text messages.<\/p>\n (He says texts over cell phones are sent via the same technology as pages.\u00a0 Who knew?)<\/p>\n