Phone numbers have gone from an active identity marker to a latent one
Now you can transfer your contact to someones phone and call them without even looking at their number.
People used to call a lot more about having vanity numbers, or carrying the same number over to new cities.
Pizza pizza used to drill their number into my head in car ads. Now I order through apps
The area code change started the shift as the number got longer, but the area code actually created a meta identity and bragging rights (Ludacris)
8675309 - for a good time call. No we would link to her insta DMs
In china, people get to choose their number and they flip through a 1000 page book to find something based on auspicousness.
Incorporate CGP Grey’s recent piece on postal codes.