Technology and the Phone

I'm sitting at my computer entering registration information for students enrolling in a summer enrichment program.
It is interesting to me to see the patterns in the information on the registration forms. How many mothers have kept their last names, who is listed as an emergancy contact, how many phone numbers are listed, etc.

Traditionally you might have had a home phone. I remember my mother-in-law talking about being on an army base and being able to pick up the phone, talk directly to the operator, and the operator could tract down her mother on the base. I also remember my own mother talking about learning to "chat" long distance because initially she only used it for short news since it was expensive. I know my first year teaching I was in a Title I school teaching 4th grade and many of the children had never touched a phone. Their parents had cell phones and the students weren't allowed to use them.

So what I am seeing in these registration forms is that sometimes you may have a home number and then work and cell phone numbers for both mom and dad, and sometimes there is obviously no land line and they solely use cell phones. Additionally, many people (myself included) may have a local number but have left their cell phone numbers based out of a previous area code. I even have at least one application where mom and dad have different area codes. This doesn't even consider communication services via the Internet.

I wonder what this all says about how we communicate and the transitivity of people.