Flip Phones

During my freshman year in college, I remember learning that it was 1920 when the U.S. population went from a majority-rural nation to a majority-urban one. (See the U.S. Census data here.)

Interestingly, the definition of "urban" was a municipality with a population of 2,000 or more. Not exactly what most of us would think of as a city these days -- more like a small town. But definitely not rural either, at least in the sense of a single isolated house surrounded by farmland.

I was reminded of this factoid recently when I read that the number of households that only use cell phones is now higher than the number of households that only use a land line. (See the AP story by Alan Fram in the Star Tribune.)

• Clearly, most households have both types of phones. (20 percent have only cell phones; 17 percent have only a land line.)
• It only took five years for those numbers to change from 3 and 43 percent, respectively.
• On top of the overall numbers, it's interesting to note that 40% of 25- to 29-year-olds have only cells; 33% of 18- to 24-year-olds.

I wonder if, in the long run, this flip in the numbers will be the same kind of watershed event as the one in 1920?