Posting Your Phone Number Online

Topic(s): me,internet
2007-02-26 01:48:06 PST

Here's an interesting experiment. Post your phone number online, invite anyone to call, and see who calls. This person has done it.

It's odd to think about. Some people place everything about themselves online. Some people will place all of their thoughts online, all of their day-to-day activities online, their names and even their friends' names online. Lots of people place their email addresses online.

But nobody places their phone number online.

I realize there are differences between a phone number and an email address. For one, an email address is more easily changed. An email address is disposable. Which means it's more difficult, almost pointless really, to harass someone via email. Just stop checking that email address, and sign up for some new, free email address.

And I bet if you ask people why they don't post their phone number online, that's the reason why not. Because they don't want odd people harassing them via the phone. Having some nut with your phone number is a major nuisance. You can't stop answering your phone! Sure, you can change a phone number, but it isn't so simple. It involves time and money.

But what's interesting about this experiment, is we'll see roughly how many people see her phone number before she receives an unwelcome phone call.

I'm betting the answer is a very large number, like several tens of millions of people. I'm betting that all the fear we have built up within us regarding strangers is probably not warranted. We probably don't need to worry as much as we do.

Having said that, I won't be posting my phone number online anytime soon.

name:
email:
url:
response: