Anyone who had a cellular phone in the 1980s was either important or wanted everyone to think they were important. Now we’re all VIPs.

And today, 25 years to the day after the grandson of Alexander Graham Bell received the first commercial cellular call, these tiny devices have become inexorably connected in our lives.

Now 84 percent of the U.S. population owns a cell phone, according to the Wireless Association. Global penetration is higher, with developing countries installing cell phone towers instead of traditional phone lines.

On Friday afternoon, Mike Huffer, 61, a blues musician and mall walker, sat happily texting his daughter in the East Hills Shopping Center.

Up until three years ago, he disdained the cell phone. People who carried one were posturing, “trying to be someone they weren’t.”

But with their cheap availability and pervasiveness, the phones have been democratized from their highfalutin days, he said.

“Cell phones are nothing now. Everyone has one,” Mr. Huffer said. “It’s like a secretary. I wake up in the morning and see who called.”

Increasingly, the devices are also becoming our primary form of communication. In the past two years, the number of wireless-only households has doubled from 8 to 16 percent, according to the Wireless Association.

Dean and Patricia Atkins, of Savannah, Mo., debated last year whether to stop home phone service when they bought their first cell phone — a pre-paid phone from Wal-Mart.

Despite giving their new phone number out to family and friends, everyone continues to call their home phone.

In one year, they haven’t received a single phone call and have made six minutes of outgoing calls.

The Atkinses, both in their 70s, have now concluded that the cell phone is an invention best utilized by their grandchildren — the first generation born into the wireless society.

“The grandkids use these things like we used knives and forks,” Mrs. Atkins said.

Joan Bennett’s first cell phone in 1983 was a “brick” that she carried around in a silver purse.

Despite being an early adopter, Ms. Bennett is skeptical about the BlackBerry-thumbing society we’ve become — constantly wired, constantly connected.

“My favorite saying is, China will take over this country with the click of the mouse,” Ms. Bennett said.

Ahmad Safi can be reached at ahmadsafi@npgco.com.