Before you owned a cell how many phone numbers could you remember off the top of your head, and how many can you remember now that you own a cell?

About 30 or so, same now.

Einstein was famous for never remembering his own phone number. This was, of course, back in the day of phone books. His reasoning was that there was no need to remember something he could look up so simply.

I still remember 2 childhood phone numbers. I know my own phone number now, and it’s a cell phone. I have memorized my desk phone at work. I know no other numbers. Why would I? I have tools to use that allow me not to have to memorize them. I use tools.

In the corporate world forty years ago I had the “chain of command” executives phone numbers memorized (about six) and their Administrative Assistant’s names too. All the way to CEO !
We had to get approvals / signatures for purchases for different levels up to $9 million. We would call to confirm executives were in their offices and walk a mile and half up to the front offices, the CEO required a tag team method where one person would drive the 7 miles and the passenger would ride up the elevator to the CEO’s office. The driver would drive around the block a few times, downtown parking was at a premium

I don’t remember how many phone numbers I remembered back in the day.

I like to think I’m freeing up space for more important considerations.
Like where the Girl Scouts will be selling cookies this weekend.

About 3. But I never even tried. Why should I try to remember phone numbers when I just wrote them in little book that fit into my wallet.

I still know the same numbers I used regularly as a child:

– mum (mobile and landline)
– dad
– grandma (mobile and landline)
– aunt no. 1
– aunt no. 2
– best friends’ landlines
– home landline

I needed a couple of those numbers not too long ago, when I sprained my ankle. I was at the doctor’s office and needed to be picked up. Didn’t have my phone, but the staff was happy to let me use their landline.

If I didn’t have any of those numbers in my head, I guess I could have asked to have a cab called. I doubt the phone book would have been much help.

I figure I knew about 25 to 30 off the top of my head when I was a teenager. When I was in college I knew all 9 sorority house numbers.

Now I am down to about a half dozen. I have been with my girlfriend since 2014 and I still don’t know her phone number, even though it is a password on some of her streaming accounts.

My grandmother died in 1974, but I still use her phone number (with an alpha prefix) as a password. I figure the only person in the world that would know it is my older sister; everyone else has died.

@zenvelo That’s too funny, I also use my grandparent’s phone number as a password, alpha thing and all.

Back when you really needed to know numbers. Before 911 you needed to know the number to the police, fire, ambulance, etc. Needed dad’s work number and mom’s friends and other stomping grounds of hers. Home, of course, school, pizza place, later on the video rental store, friends, some family, others. There wouldn’t always be a phone book around, and it only takes two or three dials to have then memorized so you didn’t even always need a phone book.

^^ And when you found a phone booth, often the phone book was gone, or the page you needed had been ripped out!

I am impressed ,the most I could remember is roughly 10 and you guys are way above that.

Then: probably 30–50.
Now: less than 10.

Oh, @SQUEEKY2, don’t feel bad, I have maybe 4 or 5 these days, and some of them are old numbers of mine from other states.

For 20 years after my divorce, I could NOT get my M-I-L’s number out of my brain. Now, I do good to remember my own number.

Back then probably 20–25. Now, maybe eight or ten.

My memory for numbers has not changed. I have dreams where I lose my phone and still can dial the correct number.
I have always had a brain and memory for numbers.

About the same

In a pinch a while back I remembered my sister’s old home phone.

I was given my home phone number in 1995 when my kids were teens.
When I was ready to cancel my home phone I “ported” my home number to my cell number. So I’ve had the same number for almost 30 years.
Once in the early 2000 one of my son’s friends called me
He was stranded in Las Vegas.
He said “Your number was the only one I had memorized so What do I do Mom?”

I would say I used to know about 30. Now I would say 7 or 8.

Short story: I had locked my phone in the car, along with the car keys, and didn’t know the number for the key pad on the car door. I was at my bff’s house, I was safe, but she didn’t have his phone number. It took me a solid 5 minutes to remember his number so he could give me the code. Yes, I have memorized both of those things now, and yes, my bff has both of them in her phone.

Tons then, tons now. I have never programmed a telephone number and/or name into any kind of phone, landline or mobile. I physically dial every number I call, and almost every one of them is in my own memory. Every now and then I have to look in my telephone/address section of my time management binder for a refresher on a rarely used number. Memorizing telephone numbers is one of my best and most useful skills.

I even have problems remembering my mom’s phone number and my own. Before smartphones I knew about 7. Family, and restaurants.

I used to have a great head for phone numbers and could remember almost all of my friends’ numbers, plus a lot of business numbers that I called a lot. Now I can remember very few. I think it’s because I am a visual learner, so if I see a number and know that i need it, I will remember it but often, with cell phones, people tell me a number and I type it into my phone, not really looking at the sequence so it doesn’t stay in my head.

It also depends on how often we dialed it. I still have my childhood number memorized.