But I do recall the joyous phone designs of the past.

Many of these cellular gems are in the Mobile Phone Museum.

So naturally, I was by far the coolest kid in school, rocking a phone with hand-drawn designs (or at least my mom thought so).

Most people remember the turn of the millennium for Y2K, or for celebrities wearing lots of denim, but for me, it was when I got my first mobile phone: the Pocketline Swing.

While the more popular Nokia 3310 was all business — robust, but a little boring — the Pocketline Swing had a groovy shape and came in bright colors.

My friend Ellen, who had the same phone and a boyfriend at the time, would keep a little notebook where she wrote down all his texts before deleting them forever.

The Sony Ericsson J200 was my first phone with a color screen back in the early 2000s — and my first one with POLYPHONIC RINGTONES (which means they sounded a bit more complex than basic beeps).

I fondly remember doing everything I could to customize those features, like visiting phone repair stores to have the technicians load ringtones on it, and downloading 15KB wallpapers via WAP (I’m talking mobile internet, not Cardi B).

People say you never forget your first love, and the same goes with your first phone.

For me, the Nokia 3310 is hands-down the most outstanding phone I’ve ever had.

A ridiculously business-like phone with very little appeal to me and my Limp Bizkit-era sensibilities

Until, of course, the phone turned up in… The Matrix

Downsides: none, I didn’t own a smartphone yet so I didn’t fully realize you could need a phone for more than just calling and texting