Claude S. Fischer, in Technology and Culture (Jan. 19881, Univ. of
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Chicago Press, PO. Ebx 37005, Chicago, Ill. 60637.
Today, chatting on the telephone is commonplace-and promoted in TV commercials. But, oddly enough, the first telephone companies frowned on the use of the device for social calls rather than business matters. For example, in 1909, a manager of Seattle's system complained that 30 per- cent of all local calls were "purely idle gossip," which should be curbed both time...