It started before there was such a thing as a cell phone. I went to public school starting in the middle 70s and I never learned to write properly. I was a guinea pig for the in fashion educational theories that rejected teaching the basics and rules of proper grammar, etc. When my children come home with homework around phonics I have to hit the internet to even try to understand what they are doing.
I learned phonics early on but not in school. I attribute my educational excellence to my mother’s purchase of numerous educational aides including phonics helpers, encyclopedia and dictionary sets, and a very early computer for educational games.