If we didn't have phones how would we communicate?

Answer 1

in trouble in trouble

Answer 2

We'd probably still be using telegraphs, or have a mobile version of the telegraph.

Either that or we'd actually go talk to someone face to face.

We might still use paper mail. This is a really interesting question. People forget just how efficient other systems were before telephones. In UK a telegraph form could be dropped off at the Post Office, transmitted by Morse Code and delivered by a telegraph boy at the other end to the recipient within a very short time. In London a postal mail message could be posted in the morning and delivered to its destination by the Royal Mail the same day. To supplement this large corporations and bodies like the Bank of England had their own teams of messengers; and these messengers exist to this day, though mainly used for documents other than correspondence. In the US, of course, there was also the famous Pony Express.

There are approx 60 places/tribes around the world who uses a whistle for communicating over long distances. This is active today but mobile phones make the future of these special "languages" uncertain.

The native Aborigines of Australia also had (maybe even have today) a special way of communicating over long distances. A plank of wood tied to the end of a rope, and when swinging it round and round, this makes a vibrating hum with a pitch depending on speed.

The question does not ask about long distance communication though.

It is a sad story of today, that people get so accustomed to technology that some forget to actually talk to each other.

I have myself visited a family where the husband and wife sits in the same room sending sms to each other instead of talking. It is simply amazing.

I am most certain that people could benefit from a bit more talking face to face.

Additional Answer:

If there was no electricity, the most efficient means of long distance communication - and at about the speed of light - would be a semaphore telegraph. This is where you have a series of towers between two cities. The towers have people who wave flags in code, and the person in the next tower sees this with a telescope, turns and waves the flags to the next tower.

With two people on the tower, one man can be waving to the next as fast as the first person can read the message. Had Rome thought of this simple expedient, they might well still exist today.

(See "Lest Darkness Fall" by L. Sprague DeCamp for the fictitious story of that.)