How Your Phone Contacts Might Chronicle Your Life Story

A Story Of Your Life

Have you ever scrolled through your phone contacts and encountered a name you hadn’t thought about in years? Did you wonder why you hadn’t deleted the contact? Do you have a criteria for adding or deleting names? They are more than just numbers – your contacts reflect your relationships, activities, and profession. They are a history of connections, phases. and stories of your life. They are somewhat of a time capsule of your life and relationships.

You could pose the question, ” What would someone find out about you if they could scroll through your contact list?” Of course, the truth is that your contacts probably have meaning only for you.

How Contact Management Has All Changed

For those of us older than the cellphone, organizing contacts used to be a tedious one. We had address books arranged alphabetically. We could enter contacts by first or last name. For the most part, we never deleted names from the book because you couldn’t. Yeah, you could cross them out or erase if it was written in pencil. If you got a new address book, you could decide what to transfer over and what not to. It was work, so you didn’t do this too often. You just kept your address book near your phone, which was always in the same place because you couldn’t move it far. Phones were either attached to a wall in a common area of the home or had a fixed length cord attached to the wall, if it was a desk phone. If you didn’t want others to see your contacts, you could keep your address book in a private place.

Some people kept a Rolodex (a movable stack of business card sized cards on a metal rod) of cards instead of a book. Add a card with a new contact and remove the card if the contact was no longer important.

For a short period of time there was an intermediate device usually called an organizer. Various electronic distributors introduced them. They kept track of names, numbers, and addresses mostly in a proprietary format only good with the manufacturer of the device. Most were cellphone sized.

But then, in the 1990’s, when everyone started getting cellphones, people could just transfer their contact list from old phone to new phone. Contact apps make it very easy. The lists just grew. while the owner adds, updates, and deletes according to each person’s own criteria as life evolves. And you have the list with you when you have your phone — which for most individuals is all the time.

The other thing to note is that people don’t change their phone number very often. Some keep it for years and even decades and may move across the country and keep the old area code. Plus, it’s possible to switch carriers and keep the same number.

How many contacts can we keep?

The method and number is up to you. There may be limitations though. For Android phones Google allows about 25000 contacts. Apple iPhone claims about 50000 in the iCloud. There are some estimates that claim each of us meet about 10000 people in our lifetime – more if you’re famous. Other estimates say we might actually come in contact with about 80000. Searching the internet will bring up varying opinions on these numbers. However, there is a figure, Dunbar’s Number, that states we only have about 150 close people in our life at one time. If so, deleting contacts is not absolutely necessary — just leave all the old ones in with the 150 or so that we use regularly.

Who We save And Who We Don’t

Each of us has our own criteria for adding or deleting contacts and how we do it reflects our priorities and their significance. For example, you might not delete the name of a business you used so you could refer friends and relatives. Unless, of course, you no longer recommend the business. But even then, you might keep it to make sure you remember the name to tell friends you that would not recommend they use that establishment.

Other Factors About Who We keep And Who We Don’t

There are people who have stayed on our contact list over a long time — perhaps they are lifelong good friends. And there are people who are no longer in your life. Some you’re separated by geography. Perhaps you’ve deleted these. Do you have a method? Most likely the contact app has the ability to put the contacts in groups. Perhaps under different headings like cities, business, medical, friends, relatives, and professional contacts. There might be some that you no longer recognize. Since it’s a personal journal of life, only you can decide.

Chapters Of Your Life: Common Categories of Contacts

While you could probably think of many types of contacts, I’ve listed 10 which I believe are very common.

1. Family and close friends – This one seems obvious. Though family can change over time as people get married and
have children. Close friends usually arrive from one of the other categories below. This is probably the category of
most importance for most people and most reluctant to delete from contacts list.

2. Contacts from school and college – Most of these, if still in contacts list will bring back fond memories of the time.
Usually they will end up as close friend or lost contact that you haven’t contacted in a long time.

3. Romantic relatinships – These might be the first to go if you get married. In the old days we used to joke abouthaving
a little black book of contacts of romantic relationships.

4. Geographical Contacts – Important numbers from where we live and move to. Landlords and neighbors fall into this
category. Utility companies and other important local business fall here.

5. From major life events — Wedding planners and contacts for celebrations. Emergency numbers, fire, police, medical.
   
   
6. Professional Connections– Work associates, clients, instructors, employers.
   
   
7. Temporary Contacts — Hotels, car rentals, restaurants. These are saved just for the convenience.
   
   
8. Deceased Contacts — People you’ ve spent quite a bit of time with from any other category, but keep for memories after they’ve gone. Eventually all contacts will fall unto this one, unless you go first.
   
   
9. From clubs, social organizations, church and other places where people gather. Many of these overlap other categories.
   
   
10. Lost contact with — People who you were close with at one point but over time you just lost contact with. There could be some regret or guilt with this one. Some you may have had a falling out with and don’t want to contact them. Some in this category you might not even remember who they are

How Does It Apply To You?

I’m sure the 10 groups that I’ve listed may not all apply to you. Some may, for sure. You might think of others that do apply in your life which aren’t listed. These were just to get you thinking. All of this is to get you to reflect on your past. Pick a contact on your list and only you know how this person or entity chronicles a time in your life.

My Personal Reflections

I am one who rarely deletes. And at my age (75), it means that I also have names of deceased people still in my contact list. I don’t expect them to ever call me. However, when their number is redistributed by the carrier, just by coincidence one day one of these names could show up on my caller ID and make me reconsider deleting old contacts.

Why I write about this even though it’s not about a poster

Many of my blog posts are about posters. But really the posters are about common experiences that are shared by many people. That’s my subject matter, f you want to call it that. I write about things that many of us will experience or have already. It’s kind of like a “been there or felt that” situation; or even a shared nature of human experiences. So if I market any products, be it a poster (which is really wall decor) or something else, this will be part of the subject matter printed on it. Thanks in advance if you visit my store and feel free to leave a comment about the topic.

If you get a chance, please visit my online store, DesertSquare, on Etsy at DesertSquare.etsy.com

And while your checking out my blog, why not visit the rest of the website at posterwit.com