The concept of communication is interesting to me. In part, the reality of communication patterns is something I have talked about before. But the other side of communication is the reality of connection. How we connect today is vastly different than when I was a kid. I remember, and I have talked about it before here, running to get the phone. One ring, and grab the phone. I also remember people thought about the concept of how many circles if the phone doesn’t answer. With the introduction of answering machines, the issue of how many times do I let the line ring was responded to. The answering machine would pick up the line, and you left a message.
But when I was first exposed to phones, we didn’t have answering machines, so we would let (is it seven rings, or 11 rings) the phone ring. Your telephone number is a numeric system designed to route your call from where the caller is to you; Your phone number identifies your endpoint. Endpoints can be telephones (did you ever have a customer or unique phone?) or cellular phones. In the 1940s, phone numbers were shorter. You simply had to remember four numbers. (K453) or Klondike 453 would reach the party you were trying to achieve. As the number of phones increased, the reality of area codes was introduced. As the phones became global, country codes were added.
01 is the country code of the US. You take the country code and put it in front of the number resulting in US phone numbers being 01 (XXX)xxx-XXXX or a total of 10 numbers that identifies your phone line. When I was little, we went to Bangkok, Thailand. We could and did call the US a couple of times, but it was costly. Calling globally now can be very cheap if you use a global calling system like Skype or Google Hangouts. With Skype or Google Hangouts, you are identified by your user name. You can call anywhere in the world for free. You can also use your cell phone, calls are not cheap, but they are not what they used to be in terms of expensive.
Still, to end today, I remember racing my sisters to answer the phone!
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Question of
Do you remember rotary dial phones?
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Yes
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No
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Question of
did you ever wonder why cell phones don’t have dial tones?
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Yes
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No
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Question of
Do you remember when answering machines first appeared?
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Yes
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No
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Question of
Did you ever have a funny outgoing message on your answering machine?
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Yes
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No
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Q: DO YOU REMEMBER ROTARY DIAL PHONES?
Yes (9 votes) – 100%
Q: DID YOU EVER WONDER WHY CELL PHONES DON’T HAVE DIAL TONES?
Yes (1 votes) – 11%
No (8 votes) – 89%
Q: DO YOU REMEMBER WHEN ANSWERING MACHINES FIRST APPEARED?
Yes (5 votes) – 71%
No (2 votes) – 29%
Q: DID YOU EVER HAVE A FUNNY OUTGOING MESSAGE ON YOUR ANSWERING MACHINE?
Yes (4 votes) – 50%
No (4 votes) – 50%
Hi I am not home right now. But, oh wait there you are. hang I will walk over to you. Beep.
(half the time people were so surprised they had to call back to leave a message!)
Our neighbor, and my grandma had a rotary phone. I remember my neighbor teaching me how to use it.
I would imagine that my grandma still has her rotary phone.
i would bet she doesn’t still have a rotary phone. Or at the least, it is a digital version of the rotary phone. The switches don’t like those old signals!
I could definitely see her with a digital version of a rotary
that would still work, the rotary dial was required (time) so that the old switches could get the full number.
Phones are also very advanced. I well remember where we were still spinning the numbers. My first home phone was already on the keys.
Rotary phones were cool (spinning dials)! it took a lot longer to dial a number.
These questions brought back funny memories. My brother and I would race to the phone and many times it was a party line, we listened to other conversations!
my grandparents had a party-line I remember that!
my sisters used to try and get to the phone first and ask the girl calling for me, a bunch of annoying questions!
The good ole days. 🙂
do you remember those days of September 🙂
they were good old days!
The answering machines were so fun. I don’t know why people don’t like to leave voice messages anymore.
for the same reasons, they don’t use email anymore. It takes too long!
I use my phone very little and make very little calls …. I have a monthly subscription of 10 euros and I have unlimited calling in the interior of Slovenia and 10 gigas of data transfers … to the EU countries I have to pay a minimum additional charge if I accidentally make a call
i remember that, having a US phone when traveling I knew what countries not to talk in!
I can call anywhere unlimited, just a call to the US would cost me a lot
The issues with cross country calling has to do with taxes and rate charges. For EU you go from your primary carrier (tax and fee) to a new carrier (tax and fee). so you are paying double the taxes and fees.
I am well aware of this so I am not calling anywhere
i find it frustrating honestly.
i work for the phone company so I like the profits because, well it pays my wages. But I wish there were a little fewer taxes on the various systems.
I remember staring at a telephone booth and wondering how do the coins make it possible to receive a call? Up to now, I have no idea.
My students have never heard of a telephone booth or fax machine.
i still have a fax machine, there are some things that require physical signatures.
I have never used a fax machine but I like it. It’s still in use but not here anymore.
banks probably still use them. there are certain things that require ink signatures.
I did not know that. Some technologies will never fade into oblivion which is a good thing.
i think faxes are close at this point. But most technology that is adopted by a part of the economy stays in place for a long time.
I don’t do that. My sons and my eldest grandson play games with other people. I do not use a voice answering machine.
I remember my sisters and I racing to the phone. Sometimes girls would call the house asking for me!