Have you ever lost your phone?

[Friendly]

Lost and never found that is.

I once lost a phone in the ocean, and my voicemail message has been about swimming with the fishes ever since.

[User 180565 is taking donation]

No it's always in my pocket or by my bedside, now days it's a sad truth but it's like a lifeline for most of us. Think about it, how many phone numbers do you actually memorize anymore? Besides my own not that many I can say.

I have washed them in washing machines. But there are easier ways of tracking lost or stolen smartphones these days.

[wildmaven]

May 23, 2020 7:54:54 GMT -8 User 180565 is taking donation said:

how many phone numbers do you actually memorize anymore? 

After Jim lost all his contacts during an update on his phone, we have them all written down at home just in case.

[bigballofyarn]

May 23, 2020 7:54:54 GMT -8 User 180565 is taking donation said:

Think about it, how many phone numbers do you actually memorize anymore? Besides my own not that many I can say.

I encountered people who didn't know their own number. Their excuse was, "I never had to call myself."

[wildmaven]

May 23, 2020 8:00:23 GMT -8 bigballofyarn said:

May 23, 2020 7:54:54 GMT -8 User 180565 is taking donation said:

Think about it, how many phone numbers do you actually memorize anymore? Besides my own not that many I can say.

I encountered people who didn't know their own number. Their excuse was, "I never had to call myself."

That's me! I always have to go into Contacts to find my own number.  

[Nscalerr 🐺]

Not yet, but I have reunited two phones with their owners in the past.

[Samantha]

Not lost one completely, no, but I have a few stories relating to the topic.

Firstly my friend left her brand new iPhone on the tube train a few years back in London. We didn’t realise til we had got off so we ran to a staff member at the station who informed us that if we caught this other tube, the train we needed would be on a certain platform as that was its final stop before going backwards. So we did as he said and we found the phone!!! Luckily it was a quieter area of London. Neither of us could believe we got her phone back.

I dropped my phone in the river in Slovenia last year. I didn’t lose my phone but it never turned back on. I was at a festival camping and I was totally lost without it. My journey to UK was ok as I was with my fella, but the 2 hour journey from his house to mine was stressful - I check train updates online constantly while I’m on the train and also had no way of updating a friend who was meeting me. I had written her number on a piece of paper (got it from messaging her in Facebook on my bf phone before I left) just incase I got stranded somewhere.


At work I’m always putting my phone down anywhere and everywhere. It’s a miracle it’s never been stolen. So I’m always misplacing it. I don’t usually panic as it tends to turn up but there was a time it didn’t. I looked everywhere and couldn’t find it. I found it later... in the freezer. I don’t know what’s more worrying though, the fact I had left it in there or the fact I knew to check in there as it’s something I’d do 😂

[User 180565 is taking donation]

May 23, 2020 8:08:43 GMT -8 wildmaven said:

May 23, 2020 8:00:23 GMT -8 bigballofyarn said:

I encountered people who didn't know their own number. Their excuse was, "I never had to call myself."

That's me! I always have to go into Contacts to find my own number.  

Living alone I learned it's almost a necessary thing to know your own number, especially for girls and doctor offices, and sometimes when you order food they'll ask for it.

[Caajscot (John)]

Never lost one as yet but like a few others, I can't remember all my number except the first 5 numbers and yet I can remember our home phone number.

One number I have never forgotten is my army number on my dog tags, in training they drum the number in you and you never forget it, I joined the army in 1972 and that's 52 years that number is in my head and when you rattle it off I will say at the end ******** SIR!!!!

[wildmaven]

May 24, 2020 0:08:27 GMT -8 User 180565 is taking donation said:

May 23, 2020 8:08:43 GMT -8 wildmaven said:

That's me! I always have to go into Contacts to find my own number.  

Living alone I learned it's almost a necessary thing to know your own number, especially for girls and doctor offices, and sometimes when you order food they'll ask for it.

I use the number for our landline for those kinds of things. 

[User 180565 is taking donation]

May 24, 2020 5:48:12 GMT -8 wildmaven said:

May 24, 2020 0:08:27 GMT -8 User 180565 is taking donation said:

Living alone I learned it's almost a necessary thing to know your own number, especially for girls and doctor offices, and sometimes when you order food they'll ask for it.

I use the number for our landline for those kinds of things. 

Landlines are fading out even companies are switching over to voip

[wildmaven]

May 24, 2020 6:00:50 GMT -8 User 180565 is taking donation said:

May 24, 2020 5:48:12 GMT -8 wildmaven said:

I use the number for our landline for those kinds of things. 

Landlines are fading out even companies are switching over to voip

When I lived in NY during 9/11, most of the cellphones were not functional during the emergency. The only way my family was able to get in touch with me was via the landline. Also, landlines are not affected during power outages. 

[Brian Welch]

I had to buy a new one years ago when I lost it.

[bigballofyarn]

May 24, 2020 9:42:49 GMT -8 wildmaven said:

May 24, 2020 6:00:50 GMT -8 User 180565 is taking donation said:

Landlines are fading out even companies are switching over to voip

When I lived in NY during 9/11, most of the cellphones were not functional during the emergency. The only way my family was able to get in touch with me was via the landline. Also, landlines are not affected during power outages. 

It depends. My landline is provided by my Internet company. So, the base phone is connected to the router. The additional handsets receive information from the first phone. So, if my router has no power, then I can't make any calls even if the batteries are fully charged. I'd probably have to call my provider to have them reactivate the jack in the wall from the old landline.

[Retread]

May 29, 2020 3:39:22 GMT -8 bigballofyarn said:

May 24, 2020 9:42:49 GMT -8 wildmaven said:

When I lived in NY during 9/11, most of the cellphones were not functional during the emergency. The only way my family was able to get in touch with me was via the landline. Also, landlines are not affected during power outages. 

It depends. My landline is provided by my Internet company. So, the base phone is connected to the router. The additional handsets receive information from the first phone. So, if my router has no power, then I can't make any calls even if the batteries are fully charged. I'd probably have to call my provider to have them reactivate the jack in the wall from the old landline.

Yeah, what you're describing is the voip (voice over internet protocol) that User 180565 is taking donation mentioned.

A 'true' landline from one of the baby bells is hardwired into the home and doesn't require power from the household mains wiring.

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Also worth noting, in times of crisis when the cell networks are overloaded, you can (usually) still send text messages. Texts require very little connect time, less time than it would take to say hello. So those are often prioritized on the network.