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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
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(no subject)
Date: 2009-09-15 11:25 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-09-16 12:08 am (UTC)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.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-09-16 12:38 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-09-16 05:30 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-09-16 03:54 am (UTC)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.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-09-16 06:02 am (UTC)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.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-09-16 09:56 am (UTC)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!