Don't Call My Number, Just Press My Face
Phone numbers are on the way out. From a Techcrunch post by Nikhyl Singhal:
Is it conceivable that one of our greatest inventions, the phone number, is about to face extinction?
Just ask Mark Zuckerberg. Earlier this year, when asked if Facebook would be around in 100 years, as long as Ma Bell has been around, Zuckerberg responded, “I don’t know. But I don’t know how long telephones will be around for.” Will they be around for ten more years? I’ll go even further. It may not even take 5 years for the phone service, as we know it, to meet its demise.
Which makes sense. When you think about a phone number -- a seven-digit piece of code that refers to a location-specific device -- it really does seem outdated and clunky, a relic from a time without more robust and customizable networks, like Facebook. (Or Ricochet, for that matter...) As Singhal puts it:
Compare this to your social networks. You have control over who accesses your information; you have one username and profile that you use at all times; and applications fill in the holes and extend the network’s capabilities to communicate, play games and meet people on your own terms.
On any Facebook page, I can “send a message”, even if we aren’t friends. And I can choose to receive messages from non-friends. The key thing is the network sets up a policy, and I as a user can change this. We don’t have this choice on the phone network today. Anyone can dial my number, and I can’t control it—but I do control my interaction on a social network.
Even now, though, I haven't bothered to memorize a phone number in years. And my home phone rings only a couple of times a week -- and it's never someone I want to talk to, always someone who wants to sell me something. When I call someone, I don't dial a number. I go to the address book on my iPhone and I press a photo.
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Comments :
May '10
Re: Don't Call My Number, Just Press My Face
Yeah, Rob, you're just like my kids... you never phone, you never write, you never press my face. So how can I sell you all my bright ideas for Ricochet?
Edited on Sep 1, 2010 at 8:52pmRe: Don't Call My Number, Just Press My Face
The cell phone of the future is a dress! From NYMag:
Jul '10
Re: Don't Call My Number, Just Press My Face
Geez, Rob, don't tell Peter about this.
He still breaks into sobs every time he remembers rotary dialing.
Get a few drinks in him and he can just go on and on:
"Remember?" he slurs, "Remember? That "tickety-tickety, tickety-tickety?" Man, that was phone calling!"
I try to distract him: "Yeah, Peter, I remember. And those curly cords. But, hey, have you seen the latest Twilight movie?"
"Well, no, I haven't, Kenneth. And you wanna know...you wanna know why!?"
His shoulders slump and I have to catch him before he falls off his barstool. He grips my bicep and looks at me with those crazed eyes he gets when he senses, but does not fully comprehend, that he is a man adrift in a world that has passed him by.
"Because they don't have it on Betamax!"
I palm the keys to his Dodge Valiant.
"Hey, Peter, let's go home, huh? If you don't mind, I'll just sleep in the top bunk. Make sure you're alright."
Edited on Sep 1, 2010 at 4:57pmMay '10
Re: Don't Call My Number, Just Press My Face
Diane Ellis, Ed.:
Or a Secret Service Agent.
Re: Don't Call My Number, Just Press My Face
EJHill
Diane Ellis, Ed.:
Or a Secret Service Agent. · Sep 1 at 4:47pm
Agent 99.
Aug '10
Re: Don't Call My Number, Just Press My Face
Diane Ellis, Ed.: The cell phone of the future is a dress! From NYMag:
(To the tune of "I'm a Little Teapot")
I'm a great big cell phone, tall and thin!
When I need charging, where do you plug me in?
Jun '10
Re: Don't Call My Number, Just Press My Face
In the meantime, Google Voice:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H1kciERUucs
(the default setting is to filter calls, asking if you want to take the call or send it to voice mail, but you can turn the filtering off)
Jul '10
Re: Don't Call My Number, Just Press My Face
Get arrested...then you will remember phone numbers....
Aug '10
Re: Don't Call My Number, Just Press My Face
Regular "landline" phone service is on the way out, but the phone companies are the primary suppliers of internet access so the companies will still be around.
When they finally get the FCC to wake up and allow them to charge for bandwidth usage, like the iPhone already does, the market will correct a lot of the errors that are currently occurring. We have a lot of bandwidth hogs out there who are being subsidized by those who use little bandwidth.
Aug '10
Re: Don't Call My Number, Just Press My Face
Oh, and I don't "press" faces. I "punch" them, per your earlier post.
Jul '10
Re: Don't Call My Number, Just Press My Face
Actually, I have noticed this is an issue in booking prisoners. They get their phone call, but they don't know what number to dial unless they can get it out of their cell phone, which is sealed in their property bag.
Jul '10
Re: Don't Call My Number, Just Press My Face
That's what I was getting at. I guess I should have stated: Get arrested...then you will learn to remember phone numbers.