@john_toss
I remembered until 2017 in Idaho you were able to call without dialing in the 208 area code. But once the 986 area code was created, you had to dial with the area code. I remembered when I was first calling without the area code. I heard a random voice message of some guy saying that I had to dial out the area code.
@keith5524
Phone numbers are not going obsolete any time soon. I work in telecom, these numbers are used as identifiers now for the most part. When we need to authenticate or do anything security related a lot of the time your number serves as a backup.
@mimidavis2686
Growing up in rural Ga in the early 70’s all we had to do was dial the last 4 digits of whoever we were calling. We were on a party line with two other neighbors and it was a huge pain. You could pick up the phone and hear their conversations. Thank God daddy switched us to a private line before I became a teenager or my life would have been over!! 😩
@ConsumeCalories
Fun fact: the automated switchboard was invented by a guy that was mad because the wife of the guy that owned a competitor to his business would connect calls meant for him to her husband, hurting his business. When he complained to the telephone company, they did nothing, so he invented the automated dial system and destroyed her job’s relevance.
@rebeccamd7903
In the early 2000’s we purchased my mother-in-laws house which was her father’s house originally. The phone line was the original party line for the area and it had never been replaced. Everyone else in the neighborhood had a new phone line installed. When it rained, some neighbors could pick up their phone and listen to my calls or vice verse. My niece was cheating on her boyfriend, who lived 2 houses down and that’s how he discovered her cheating on him and that’s how she learned about party lines. 😂😂
@lisaboban
I don't think phone numbers will become obsolete because they are used for more things than connecting phones these days. They are often used as unique identification for log in processes and authentication. You'd have to replace them in all those systems as well as the entire phone network internationally. 😊
@Morenitodee
The way my heart warmed seeing my area code pop up. (440) 🤣🤣🤣
@swimmerdude1100
Fun fact - in certain parts of the country we still have 7 digit dialing. Certain states/area codes are like this. (10 digit dialing is needed due to overlays vs splits)
@Mahrimae
lol… so I’m not that old. I’m 51. But growing up on the Rez in Arizona things were a little behind the times. We were still only using 4 digits to make local calls in my town until we’re moved away when I was in third grade. One place we lived was so remote when I was a toddler that the residents of the hamlet we lived in at the bottom of a canyon had to get to a a phone pole at the top of the canyon, climb half way up a telephone pole to reach a telephone in a box which was connected to, of all things, a party line… so if someone was already using it you had to climb back down and wait a bit and try again.
@janar734
Im old 😂 and i remember my grandma's phone number as Melrose 25027. Later shortened to ME 25027. I also remember party lines where multiple homes used the same phone line. Wild.
@matthewwojcik576
We moved to central Vermont in 1986. For the first couple of years we lived there, we could still dial numbers within our local exchange by just dialing 4 digits. Then 7 digits were required. Vermont still has only one area code, and 10-digit dialing did not become mandatory until October 24, 2021 .
@stlmtndew2654
If you’re wondering, that phone number goes to a rickroll line
@asianinashed
Fun fact: Here in Green Bay Wisconsin, they only changed that last bit recently. If i remember right, it was optional to dial the area code up until 2020ish.
@Toucan23
Johnny kinda makes everything sound like a conspiracy theory
@eiriankt
I remember as a kid, to prank the house, you'd pick up the phone, dial your own number, and then wait for the automated voice to say "the number you have dialed is on your party line. Please hang up and try again." You hang up, and would have about 3 seconds to get as far away from the phone as possible before it started ringing. Once it was picked up (by someone else, usually a parent/adult), they'd just get a busy signal. (and I'm realizing just how much of that story makes no sense to people who've never dealt with land-line phones, lol) But anyway. That's how I first learned what a party line was, and that when my mom was a kid, you could actually pick up the phone and eavesdrop on conversations if one of the telephone users was on your party line. That's why she'd always pick up the phone and listen for the dial tone before starting to dial a number.
@meltedwing
10 digit dialing didn't happen everywhere all at once. I remember some places still having 7 digit dialing while major metros implemented 10 digit dialing.
@genericsidecharacter8915
Dude, I think I would cry if phone numbers became outdated technology
@Weeping-Angel
I still remember when typing the area code was suddenly necessary. I wasn’t used to it yet and it would scare me every time I forgot
@chuckspoke
Phone numbers......I remember back in the day when there were party lines. You could pick up the phone and listen in on people talking. In small towns, you hear your neighbors talking about how much they admire you. What a lovely yard you have. That's just nice things said. People would talk over party line like they do today.
@Dark_Magnus