this post was submitted on 12 Aug 2024
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Showerthoughts
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I remember the shift to using area codes and how everyone was so upset at how difficult that would be. Then the smart phones came, and I wonder how many people now know many of the numbers they might regularly call with one tap,
we got a second area code on top of our existing one and had to start 10-digit dialing something like 15 years ago.
to this day i have yet to encounter anyone with a phone number in that new area code. even the scammers that spoof their cid don't use that new area code.
before the switch we could 7-digit dial for 40 miles around us, even across an area code boundary. and, tbh i'd rather have had to switch to a new area code and kept the 7 digit dialing than have to deal with the 10 digit bullshit. it just seems so out of place here in the boonies, hours away from, well, pretty much everything.
Here in West Virginia the entire state was one area code until some time in the early aughts. I had the opposite experience though it seemed like everyone who got a new phone plan got a number with the new area code so I saw it a lot.
I remember the land line I grew up with even though I doubt it even exists anymore. Also, apparently remember my brother's number even though it was when he got a cell phone. So, no real reason to remember it.
Where I grew up, we only ever gave the last four digits of our number because the whole town and then some was the same. Later, they changed the area code since it was running out of numbers and then we moved to 10-digit dialing. I remember how weird it felt when things like long distance calls just kinda stopped being a thing
Long-distance calls being equivalent to local calls has been an incredibly good change.