Apparently “ahoy” was a common greeting before the telephone was invented, to the point that Alexander Graham Bell suggested it for use when answering the phone.
Ahoy was common enough that the Simpsons had their oldest phone user answer with "Ahoy hoy?"
While it wasn't a general greeting, "halloo" was already used as a verb meaning "to call for a hunting" in the 14th century.
There are countries in the world, where you enter a room in the morning full of dear and beloved friends and colleagues, and you would neither greet them nor make eye contact until they wanted something from you.
I don't know whether this would be my heaven or my hell, but as a brit, useless smalltalk is practically baked into my bones.
I'll stick with the hellos. IMO meatspace human interaction feels like a privilege now.
Especially today where everyone wants to be alone because of overstimulation (but they might also feel lonely at the same time)
iirc the "Hello my baby, Hello my ragtime gal" song was written specifically about the telephone. "Hello" wasn't a common irl greeting at the time
Howard and Emerson in 1899: sup bring that booty girl btb"
Someone on social media literally cannot stop thinking about this.
Kateekalo!
Phones weren't invented in 1825, this meme picture is historically inaccurate.
Except, nowhere in the meme is stated that. The meme is about "the first attested writing" of the word hello.
"Hallo" as a general greeting was popularized by the telephone though, so the picture does have a historical significance in this context.
So... ? It's just an old photo of a man talking to the phone for context.
source image : Scanned from a (cheaply printed) postcard, c. 1905-1915; no notice of publisher, date, or any copyright.
