Cell phone subscriptions surpass human population

Graph depicting the rate of mobile phone subscriptions surpassing the global population.

By 2015 there were more cell phones in use than people on Earth according to United Nations International Telecommunication Union Statistics. And by 2022, there were more than 8.58 billion mobile subscriptions in use worldwide, compared to a global population of 7.95 billion.

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Culture & Behaviors 2010s

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Cell phone subscriptions surpass human population

Graph depicting the rate of mobile phone subscriptions surpassing the global population.

By 2015 there were more cell phones in use than people on Earth according to United Nations International Telecommunication Union Statistics. And by 2022, there were more...

Year of the selfie

"Selfie" became the Oxford Dictionary's word of the year. Selfies, or self-portraits taken with mobile phones, became a global phenomenon, influencing pop culture and social...

“We noticed protest posters: 'You will drink lithium, you will eat copper.'”

– Ligaya, Atacama Desert, Chile

Rise of cyberbullying

Photo of a young person hanging their head, holding a mobile phone, swarmed by harassing text messages.

Cyberbullying has escalated as more people connect online, affecting many, especially youths. Persistent, invasive, and often anonymous, this form of harassment can occur...

Transform the tech industry from inside.

Take Action Photo of a hand holding the 2021 yearbook, which is a collection of the community’s work over 12 weeks.

Collective Action School has a grassroots theory of change. We believe the people who make the tech industry run—its workers—have the power to not only transform it, but to build and imagine new technologies. They welcome all tech workers—whether you’re a project manager, warehouse worker, software engineer, or ride share driver.

First car phone call

An engineer demonstrates a car phone five months before the historic first call on a competing company’s commercial mobile telephone service in 1946.

AT&T's Bell System introduces the Mobile Telephone Service was introduced. The first MTS call was made in 1946 in St. Louis, Missouri. The equipment weighed eighty pounds,...