This cell phone poll is from bloodstones.

[randomness]

[Poll #1458046]

Comments

[rmd.livejournal.com]

the area code on my phone number (857) is an overlay of the area code that i grew up in. the actual town i grew up in is no longer in that area code, however, as 617 has split several times.

[surrealestate.livejournal.com]

When you say "where I'm from", do you mean where I grew up, where I live, something else?

I consider where I'm from to be something that doesn't change, since it refers to the past, so a current phone number or anything else has no bearing on that. Where I live now can change, of course. I realize this isn't a common view given the frequency with which I'm asked to say where I'm from when clearly what is being asked is where I live, but it's a pet peeve of mine. :]

[r-ness.livejournal.com]

I believe--but will confirm with bloodstones--that the ambiguity here is deliberate. I.e., she is trying to elicit an answer that is meaningful to you. It could be any of those options, or none of them.

[bloodstones.livejournal.com]

r_ness got it right - the ambiguity is deliberate. The reason for the question is that I consider myself *from* boston and always will. But I know people who, for whatever reason, consider that far more mutable. So even if they spent the first 22 years of their life living in the same place they are happy to say they're *from* where they live now. It strikes me as wanting to shed the past*, and I think there's probably a correlation between that and how likely you are to keep your cell phone number**.

In a similar vein, I call 3 places home, boston, my university despite graduating many years ago, and then wherever I pay rent, which is currently chicago.


*I say that without judgment about whether shedding the past is good, bad, or neutral.
**Okay, probably not a high correlation, but I bet it's there.

[in-parentheses.livejournal.com]

Wow, I feel like I'm having this conversation with everyone lately! I "grew up" in 4-5 different places, depending on how you count, from Florida to Pittsburgh and assorted spots in between. I chose Providence for college -- very deliberately choosing Providence as much as I chose the school -- and have not left New England since.

So at this point, I've lived twice as long in the 1-hour Providence-Boston radius as I lived anywhere I "grew up." I'm from here, in every way that matters to me. (Convert zeal and all that.) But it is handy to be able to say "I'm going home" to mean "I'm going to visit my parents," so I do use "home" sometimes to mean Pittsburgh.

[bloodstones.livejournal.com]

By my definition (which I would note is not as important as your definitions for your point of you) that means you have two homes. I think having a hierarchy is fine, which it sounds like you definitely do.

[cubes.livejournal.com]

Except for those who moved before free LD was widespread, and in the days when cell plans still had "home" areas, and before cell # portability...

(I will always be "from" NJ, but I now call Florida "home" as well because I am raising my own family here.)

[bloodstones.livejournal.com]

I'm not arguing that cell phone numbers are always an indication of where people are from. I'm arguing that since cell phones are portable (even before the numbers were), your cell number can identify where you're from, and if that matters to you you can make an effort to keep a number, or make a point of changing it.

Free long distance, having a 'home' area, and pre-number portability made it harder to retain a number, but it didn't make it impossible, so it creates noise in the data, but correlations are rarely perfect.

[surrealestate.livejournal.com]

I guess I'm confused about the point of the question if there's no way to actually know how any given person interpreted it, so the answers are kinda meaningless.

Despite my peeve about the use of the phrase, I don't think it's actually indicative of wanting to shed the past. I think it's just widely-accepted language abuse.

[bloodstones.livejournal.com]

The answers aren't meaningless - they just need to be correlated to figure out whether or not they support my hypothesis. Someday I may even get around to putting this into SPSS and finding out.

As for shedding the past, I'm not making any claims about you. I'm saying that I have observed people going out of their way to change cell phones when they didn't need to and when it cost them money to break a contract - it struck me as a need to identify as being from somewhere other than where they grew up.

[cerridwynn.livejournal.com]

ah! i just realized why i had trouble answering your second question before! (i think i commented on it then...)

specifically because i consider two places to be "home" (and because i consider myself to be "from" both of them, in different contexts) i can't answer accurately.

now, if the question had been worded "I consider the area code of my cell phone number to be one of the places I'm from" it would have been okay...

(no criticism of your poll here -- this is all personal. just a little realization on my part...)

[bloodstones.livejournal.com]

I assumed people would insert the 'one of the places' themselves if they needed it. Although I also think that 'where I'm from' is 'where I grew up' even though there are 3 places I call home. And couldn't phrase it that way because not everyone equates 'where I'm from' with 'where I grew up'.

[ceo]

Like rmd, the area code where I grew up and the area code where my parents live now are different, despite being the same physical location.

[theloriest.livejournal.com]

hee. The entire state I grew up in has the same area code. Lovely, that. :p

[sylphon.livejournal.com]

The area code on my cell number is one of an ever-growing area codes for the Atlanta area, it's one of the original atlanta 'catch-all' area codes. I've had it for 10+ years now since I've been able to keep it through all my atlanta-area moves. I had a different cell number briefly when I was in NC before moving to GA.

As for places I call home, well I just bought a house, so it is 'home', but I've never really felt at home since I left the New England area. My parents don't even live in new england anymore, but I still think of that bundle of states as home.

[r-ness.livejournal.com]

I think you can go back and edit your response, if you like.

[r-ness.livejournal.com]

Oh! Sorry! Here's how you do that:

Go back to the entry.
Click on the link Poll #1458046.
Click on [ Fill out poll ]
Change whatever answer you like.

(Of course, now that I've provided the link, you can just go straight to that, but I thought I'd offer the whole procedure for future reference.)

[donnad.livejournal.com]

I usually say I don't have a cell phone. I do have one, I just never turn it on unless I am actually using it or expecting a call. When it is on, unless I have it sitting on the table next to me, I rarely hear it when it rings.
I no longer give out the number because people/doctors offices insist on using the cell to call and I miss the calls. I don't know how many times I have told them to use my home number, but they insist on using the cell. Finally I told them to delete the number and that I no longer had the phone. I never think to check the voicemail and don't even remember the password.

I like to be able to disappear. I have no need nor desire to rely on a piece of technology 24/7. I just bought a new car and the dealer was all apologetic because it didn't have GPS. I said thank you, I don't want a GPS, I know how to read a map or ask for directions should I need them. Sometimes I just don't want to be trackable.

[ceo]

I definitely understand not wanting a cell phone, but I should note that GPS is entirely passive; the satellites just broadcast time signals and the receiver uses them to compute where you are.

[donnad.livejournal.com]

the receiver uses them to compute where you are

Ah, there you go, what if I don't want anyone to know where I am?
No GPS, no lojak, no cell phone, I don't rely on these things, If I wanted to go completely off grid, I could. If I wanted to or needed to disappear I can. Granted I would probably have internet withdrawal, but I would survive. :)

[ceo]

The receiver is the thing you carry; it can't tell anyone else where you are.

[chrisber.livejournal.com]

"Where I'm from" is such a nebulous concept for me, ever since grade school when people asked that, but really meant "what country are you a citizen of". Since I was a US citizen but had never been to the US, at least one person in the conversation quickly became confused.

These days, I'll admit to being "from" California, or Mountain View in particular; since most people who live here were born somewhere else, the question is closer to "where are you living now" in the usual context.

[redbird]

Something like 1.3 would be the closest answer to the last question: I don't think of Boston as home, but I do think of adrian_turtle's apartment as home, along with mine here in New York with cattitude.

[outlawradio.livejournal.com]

I guess the phone is from where I live now if you think of that in terms of the five boroughs. I was living in Manhattan when I got it (I got one of the Manhattan area codes) and I really liked my number and never changed it. I subsequently moved to Queens, back to Manhattan, Washington DC, back to Manhattan, and now Brooklyn. I consider myself to live in Brooklyn, and it's a New York City area code, so it's "where I live now" basically, even if not exactly.

[bloodstones.livejournal.com]

This poll clearly needs some option that makes it clear that I don't care if the actual 3 digit area code existed when you were growing up, or has been added since then, and that what matters is geography and whether someone will recognize the area code as being from x_location and ask if you're from there.

[r-ness.livejournal.com]

Yeah.

Also I've gotten an anonymous comment that they don't have a cell phone, but I don't know (for the purposes of survey design) whether it's useful to track the how many respondents don't have a cell phone versus how many do.

[dpolicar]

Add me to the no-cell-phone pile.

[bloodstones.livejournal.com]

Well, clearly the question is irrelevant to the individual if they don't have a cell phone. The additional information we'd want would be what phone numbers do you have, cell, land etc, and then what number do you use as your primary number. I suspect that will differ by generation, and further that the correlation I hypothesized will be weaker in older generations and stronger in younger generations where people are a lot more likely to have only a cell phone.

[earthling177.livejournal.com]

Hm... now I'm even more confused why we are talking about cell phones instead of land lines or just phones in general. I'm way more likely to give just my landline number to most people, my cell phone goes mostly to people who will understand that I do not have my cell phone turned on 24x7 -- first call my house, call my cell only if you don't get an answer. I should have an outgoing message on my cell phone that goes along the lines of "Hi! I'm in, so please leave a message -- I'll call you when I'm out..." ;-)

Anyway, I've had 3 cell phone numbers, due to changing carriers. I suppose (but I'm not sure) I could have transferred the second number to the third phone, but (a) I just don't care that much about the number portability, my landline phone has changed more than that and people survived just fine and (b) for a variety of reasons, my third and second cell phones overlapped by a month or two and it was handy to have both phones at the time, so I had even more reasons not to port the number.

Now where I'm from and where my home is are more confusing and have nothing to do with shedding my past. I will acknowledge saying "I'm gonna go home for a week" as a shortcut to "I'm visiting my folks" but I always say "time to go home" when I'm there and heading back here. I usually just think of myself as having one home and it is the one I'm living in and give as my home address. And sure, I'm from another place, but I've been living here now for over a third of my life, so more and more, the person I become daily is closer to being from here than from where I grew up. And when I visit my folks, both friends and family think I'm too Americanized anyway. I suppose if I recognized some form of "rebirth" when I get my American Citizenship, I might not be stretching the truth too much by saying "I'm from Massachusetts" for example. But more likely I'll still just say "from Brazil" and be done with it, most people are asking because of the accent anyway.

[bloodstones.livejournal.com]

The question is about cell phone numbers because to a large extent people can choose whether or not to keep them, regardless of current geographical location, or change them, whereas you can't take a land line with you when you move. I'm interested in whether people are likely to either change or avoid changing their cell phone number so that it identifies where they are from, however they define that. People who don't have or rarely use their cell phones add noise to the data, but it doesn't invalidate the question. As I said above, I suspect the strength of the correlation would vary by generation as cell phones are more likely to be the only phone number people have if they're younger.

As to whether or not this is about where someone is from or where they call home the whole point is that that means something different to different people. Everyone's story about where home is is unique; what I'm interested in is how that impacts their behavior.

[earthling177.livejournal.com]

Well, as we've seen by some respondents here, they ported their landline numbers to their cell phones, so it's not impossible to carry your home number with you. I wonder if it's possible to also just port a phone number from a landline to another place landline. It's becoming mostly software anyway.

I suppose this is just anecdotal evidence, so you can take it with a grain of salt, but I've seen both behaviors across all ages: both people who scream bloody murder their phone numbers will change and people like me who think it's not a big deal and also for both cell phones and landlines -- by now multiple metro areas had lively arguments pro- and con- splitting the phones into new area codes or adding overlays. Some areas, like Boston, just got new area codes for the 'burbs, some places added overlays. Although I think here cell phones did a bit of both depending on the carriers.

If I'm allowed to make up answers, I'd say that my perception is that the businesses were the first to scream bloody murder about the number changes (no surprise, the older the business, the harder it is) and then people got the idea that changing their phone numbers might be a big deal for them too.

For me, I think I'm of the electronic age even though I'm nearly 50 years old. When my phone number changes, I just email my entire set of friends and tell them so. Also, that's what the phone directories and directory assistance is for, but then again, I'm fortunate enough that I'm not being stalked, so I can list my phone number (I have friends that have restraining orders against nasty people and can't do what I do, for example).

Still, I suppose it's pretty obvious there are all kinds of people. I hope you get your answers as to what percentages they fall into, good luck!

[agrimony.livejournal.com]

This gets weird for me. I've moved back to the area that I grew up in, which when I was a kid was an entire state with the same area code, but now the state is two area codes (soon to be four) and I just happen to be in the part that's still the original area code.

As to the question about if this is where my parents lived when I got my first cell phone, the answer is yes and no. My mom's always lived here while I got my first cell phone out in California. My dad... I'm not sure if he was still in CT when I got my first cell phone, so I left it unchecked. :)

My first cell phone area code was in CA.

Oh, and as I think on it, I lied about number of cell phone numbers. I've had three, not two.

[apintrix.livejournal.com]

My area code is 718 (who-oa, who-o-oa-- 718!); my first cell phone had a Boston exchange, but I switched it when I moved to NY and changed cell companies, I can't remember why but the guy wouldn't port the number to my dad's family plan.

I haven't changed it since and I don't plan to, because 718 is cool and makes me think of Brooklyn.

[muffyjo]

857 was the "new" cell phone area code that covered the part of the area I lived in at the time. It has since moved with me.

I can't remember how many cell phones I've actually had...let's see..college (yes,I had a suitcase phone in case of emergencies while driving from Maine to NYC). I think my first one outside of that was here in Boston when I lived in Brookline. Then I changed providers and they made me change my number. Then I moved to London and had a new one there. Then I came back and got a new one here. Then I moved across the river and had to change again to the one I have now. So I think that's 5 different numbers I've had.

As for home...it is a place that moves around for me. It's wherever my hat is hanging, wherever my mother's hat is hanging as well as a place that no longer exists except in my memory in South Carolina.

[rfrancis]

I checked every single item on question #1 including other, because my "other" is "I've never lived in another area code, ever, in 40 years, and that includes the hospital I was born in."

[theloriest.livejournal.com]

I keep thinking I should get a local number (particularly due to the number of wrong numbers I get from 4 hours behind me!)... but I really really like my number and it's unique. So I put up with being woken up at 3 in the morning once in a while.

[whitebird.livejournal.com]

If my "Where you went to college" you really meant "Where you went to college the second try", then sure.

Also, where I went to college (the second try) is also where I work...

[rednikki.livejournal.com]

My area code is of the last city I lived in. Too many people have my old LA number for me to change it.

[karakara98.livejournal.com]

203 is where I'm from. 617 is home.

[chanaleh.livejournal.com]

To me, the default meaning of "where I'm from" is "where I grew up", i.e., Indiana. The exception is when I'm *traveling* and someone asks where I'm from, such that "where I live now" (i.e., Boston) becomes the intuitive answer.

[sarakate.livejournal.com]

My present cell number area code is one of several for my metro area, and is the area code that covers landlines in the area where I lived when I first got a cell and the area code that first cell had. It's not the area code that landlines get in the part of town where I live now -- we have two divided more-or-less geographically and one area-wide catchall code -- but it's a local call from here. My mom lives in the same metro area, although nearly as far from me as she could be and still be in the same area (it's ~50 miles from my house to hers), and has the whole time I've had a cell.

I generally would specify where I'm "from" as where I live now -- I've been here a good long while, and my accent reflects it, so in general if someone asked, "Hey, where are you from?" I think that's what they'd be expecting. There are circumstances, like if someone asked where I'm originally from, where I might give a different answer, but that'd be uncommon.

I've changed my cell number once, about 5 years ago, when I was issued a phone by my employer -- I'm allowed to use it for personal calls, so I dropped my personal cell. I could have had them port the number at that time, but chose not to -- when this area first split area codes, all the numbers in outlying areas were reassigned from the original code to the new code, and the number I got for my personal cell was one that a business in the new code had previously had, and there were still a lot of business directories and such that had their number with the old area code, and I got a ridiculous number of wrong-number calls for them. I kept thinking it would taper off, so I didn't ask for a new number early on, and then later, I'd given it out to so many people I didn't really want to change, but I was still getting 3-4 wrong-number calls a week, so I decided it was worth the hassle when I was switching to the company phone anyway.

"Home" is definitely ambiguous. I consider where I live now home, but I also have a hometown I grew up in, and I'll periodically say "going home" to refer to the city where my dad lives, and the small town my parents came from and most of my extended family still lives in or near. So, four.

[nathanjw]

Systemic identifiers are weird. The place where my parents live, and where I lived from 8-18 (and thus consider where I did most of my "growing up") has changed area code, zip code, street name, and street address since I lived there.