telephones

I used to believe that through cell phones they could be spying on the things we say or the things we do.

Mauricio Caiza

Not sure if I really believed this, but I might have thought that the BT voicemail lady (Eleanor Bron) was really talking to you on the phone, instead of her voice being recorded. Creepy eh?:?

Natasha

When I was little, I noticed that when the other person hung up, there would be a series of beeping sounds followed by a whine. I'd freak out because I thought that meant the phone would explode if I didn't put it back onto the receiver pronto.

Anon

I used to think that when you were on the phone, the person you were speaking to would shrink themselves and crawl up the wire and sit in the handset.

Théo

I used to believe that if you yelled "911" in a tin can phone, it would really work and the police will come and arrest you if there's no emergency. When my best friend and I were in 3rd grade, we tried using a tin can phone and I yelled "911" to her. My best friend told me it's illegal to call 911 when there's no emergency, so both of us got scared and we ran into the house and hid under the table so the police couldn't find us. We were stupid at that time.

Alice

When I was 10 I was jealous of the fact that my friend had a cell phone and I didn't, and when I asked my mother why this was she told me that it was because prolonged cell phone use could cause brain cancer. From then onwards and up until the age of 12, I straight-up refused to use cell phones (even in emergencies) and I even used to go around "warning" people about the dangers of using them. Then, up until the age of 13, I would only use cell phones when absolutely necessary. It wasn't until the age of 14 when I learned in physics class that the waves emitted from cell phones pose no health risk.

Anon

I used to believe that if you thought really hard about who you wanted to phone and pressed the pound button, it would automatically call the number you were concentrating on. I couldn't understand why anyone would ever use any other method. I swear it worked for me until someone told me that it wasn't possible.

tami

I thought that the "smart phone" was the name of a certain phone made by a certain company. One of my classmates told me that he thought the same thing.

Anon

When I was little there would be a recording on the telephone if you held it to your ear without dialing, saying "please hang up and try your call again..." etc. I used to think that was a real woman but she wasn't allowed to say anything else. So I would often hold our house phone to my ear until she would "answer", then I would joke around, yell things at her and make weird noises, trying to make her mess up her lines or get angry at me.

x

I used to believe that if you dialed "0" and didn't press another button on the phone REALLY fast then the you would call the police. I would get very nervous anytime I had to call my friend at 868-0791. Sometimes I just couldn't handle the pressure and I'd walk to his house instead.

Anon

One Christmas day when I was very young, I decided to play with the telephone and got through to a woman. My mum heard me talking and came to see what was going on, took the phone away from me and apologised to the woman. For some reason I was convinced that I was in trouble because the woman was the Queen and I was disturbing her Christmas Day lunch.

G.B.

I believed that when the phone was ringing, the person on the other end could hear everything going on at the other end.

Hoseki

When I was young, I used to think that if I picked up the phone while it was ringing then I would get electrocuted. I thought this because everyone that would answer the phone would wait until after the ring.

Rebecca

when i was little (elementary school) my friend would always call the operator for fun. she would say random things or hang up or try to start a conversation with them. i asked how she knew how to call the operator and she told me it was a long series of secret numbers only she knew. i was really upset and got mad at her for not telling me. i just found out this isnt true and im 15

operator, operator

When i first heard of fax machines i used to believe that there was an invisible line in the sky that it would transfer the page and papers would "move" around the sky...

Anon