Phone connections, but not like how you'd think
My love of phones has led me down some interesting paths. It's surprisingly not just an insular, niche bit of technology culture but a niche culture that is well-connected to other niches outside of technology. (Who would have thought that phones would be used for connectivity!) My two personal examples are Canadian indie music and logo design. Both come in some form from what I had learned about the history of the telecom industry in the US and specific companies that I was following.
My interest in Canadian indie music started when I heard the song "I Love You" by Said The Whale in a 2013 ad during one of T-Mobile's Un-carrier campaigns. I found their album hawaiii through that song, found out they won a Juno Award for it, simultaneously found out what the Juno Awards even were, and then dug into the rest of their discography. I still listen to many of their albums today and consider them one of my ride-or-die bands. Said The Whale is fairly well-connected on the Canadian indie rock scene with bands like The Zolas, Hey Ocean!, and Yukon Blonde. All of whom I've ended up listening to at least a little bit. I ended up moving into the Rural Alberta Advantage as well and Rah Rah. Other outfits like Dumb also started catching my attention when I got into post-punk (though originally starting with New York-based Parquet Courts).
My interest in logo design and branding came from an explanation on the revamping of the Bell System's now-famous logo designed by Saul Bass as well as the one he designed later on for AT&T Corp specifically. These logos were considered seminal in each of their eras. The Bell System's being an entire branding system that persisted far past the era it was designed for (on purpose, because of its strength as a form of branding) and AT&T Corp's being a technological feat for its 3D effect which was innovative at the time. These two logos got me looking into the work of Saul Bass as a designer. That eventually led me to the work of Massimo Vignelli for a redesign of the signage and branding of the New York City Subway system. Subsequently, that lead me to the work of Unimark - Vignelli's short-lived but highly influential design firm.
You could chalk all this learning up to the internet and its encouragement of frenetically jumping from topic to topic but, ultimately, this content stuck with me and started with things related to telecom while other topics did not stick and were not related. Some of it came down to personal interest but I'm also sure I'd have been hard-pressed to find out about these things without my incredibly strong interest in phones and telecom.