I was the guy that used audacity to make ringtones and then share them with as many people as possible. This was of course once phones could play actual music as ringtones.
Man, OPs caption unlocked a core memory I have of calling my high school boyfriend at 858 pm, and talking on the phone with him for about 2.5 hours before he got notified that he was under 10 mins left for the month.
We had thought he was only going to lose 2 of his minutes 😭.
Don't forget ringback tones so u could force anyone who called to listen to a scratchy version of a shitty song any time they called. My sister still had hers til like 2015 or something.
My ringtone has been the same one for the last 15 years, Cowbell Rock. I paid for it twice, once when Ringtone Feeder was a thing, and then again from iTunes. Worth it. Best ringtone ever. Would buy again if I could.
Anyone remember paying ten cents or honestly usually more per text until someone did out the numbers and we all realized we were paying more to text than NASA pays to beam data back from the goddamn Hubble? Like 5x as much on average? And only then did unlimited texting become common?
To be fair, also born at the right time to have a mobile phone as a convenience that allowed you to stay in touch as you went places. As opposed to a smartphone, aka voluntary shackle that keeps you indoors doom scrolling social media.