Maasai herders in East Africa use wrong numbers to make connections
January 12, 2024 11:39 AM Subscribe
Sometimes wrong numbers work. On the East African savanna, Maasai herders can form important new social connections when they misdial their mobile phones, a new study of these communities found. Maasai have traditionally lived in relatively independent, homogeneous groups, but these misdials introduce them to strangers near and far. And some even become friends or business partners. When asked why people use phones this way, one respondent commented, “Good things happen.”
So Zathu Nananga and Mrs. Harriet Schwartz are now friends?
posted by fedward at 12:01 PM on January 12 [3 favorites]
posted by fedward at 12:01 PM on January 12 [3 favorites]
This sounds so like the Maasai I’ve met.
When colliding with a much bigger group with better technology some cultures cease to exist. The Maasai just acquire and adapt.
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 12:18 PM on January 12 [5 favorites]
When colliding with a much bigger group with better technology some cultures cease to exist. The Maasai just acquire and adapt.
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 12:18 PM on January 12 [5 favorites]
I liked this a lot more before I got to the paragraph about how the men don't let women use phones.
posted by jacquilynne at 12:43 PM on January 12 [21 favorites]
posted by jacquilynne at 12:43 PM on January 12 [21 favorites]
A shame that there’s no historical context provided on “wrong call” relationships from other times and places. Could anyone doubt that the same thing has happened in every major city around the globe, especially in immigrant communities that speak non-dominant languages? Or in rural communities? Hell, a huge proportion of US telephony was party lines well into the middle of the 20th century. There’s a fine line between human interest and exoticizing/patronizing in stories like these.
posted by rrrrrrrrrt at 3:43 PM on January 12 [5 favorites]
posted by rrrrrrrrrt at 3:43 PM on January 12 [5 favorites]
Mod note: Derail about stereotyping removed; please use Metatalk if necessary.
posted by taz (staff) at 9:27 PM on January 12
posted by taz (staff) at 9:27 PM on January 12
There’s a fine line between human interest and exoticizing/patronizing in stories like these.
I don’t get the sense from the article that they’re saying that what’s happening is in any way unique to the Maasai. They’re just studying the tribe and have found this phenomenon a “Dog Bites Man” level news event for them.
In contrast when it happens in U.S. culture it is a “Man bites Dog” event that gets press for years.
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 10:42 PM on January 12 [3 favorites]
I don’t get the sense from the article that they’re saying that what’s happening is in any way unique to the Maasai. They’re just studying the tribe and have found this phenomenon a “Dog Bites Man” level news event for them.
In contrast when it happens in U.S. culture it is a “Man bites Dog” event that gets press for years.
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 10:42 PM on January 12 [3 favorites]
Putting aside any and all feelings about how media portrays Maasai (and the relationship Maasai have with tourism), I think it says a lot about human nature if the way we structured our time and our life were different. It kinda reminds me of accidental friends that sparked out of being in some dumb AOL chatroom in 1997 and via A/S/L finding some random fellow 8th grader from an interesting place who was also socially thirsty. Every now and then I'll chat with a wrong text... and isn't there some viral "good news" story that floats around periodically about some young adults showing up to some random wrong text 60 year old birthday party and turning it into a tradition? Man that's actually hard to google...
The fact that it's resulting in social manipulation and scams is also somewhat unsurprising.
posted by midmarch snowman at 8:26 AM on January 13 [1 favorite]
The fact that it's resulting in social manipulation and scams is also somewhat unsurprising.
posted by midmarch snowman at 8:26 AM on January 13 [1 favorite]
Ah, like ChatRoulette!
posted by unknowncommand at 12:00 PM on January 13 [2 favorites]
posted by unknowncommand at 12:00 PM on January 13 [2 favorites]
For many years when I lived in LA my landline number was a pattern on the keypad. I started getting wrong numbers as soon as I moved in. (I also got calls for the new tenant in my former apartment, plus the phone company accidentally made me an extension of my neighbor’s phone, but those are side stories.)
Some calls made sense, (sort of) like my first, at 3am-ish, from “Fritz, looking for Jeff, we met at Rage and I just wanted to tell you you have the cutest ass I’ve ever seen.” (Fake number from Jeff, hope over reason after hearing my name & voice on my outgoing message.) Some didnt, like the 3am-ish call from Mike, who repeated a few times that he was a reporter (for People magazine, for the National Enquirer), & wanted to do a story on me because (shouting, more or less) “you’re so UGLY!” I also got a very long 3am-ish call from some goofy sounding man checking in on Johnny (“Are you doing ok? Are you eating your vegetables?”)
I got wrong numbers from prisons (sometimes just “you’ve received a call from,” once “Corinne, pick up, I want to talk to you honey (over and over, then a pause, then) … Bitch!”), small children, (“Hey baby, my name’s Corell - I’ve seen you around & I just wanted to tell you, I’ve fallen in love with you.”). I got death threats (generally not credible), obscene call (I remember one in a foreign language - you can tell), beeps when someone misdialed a beeper (or kids playing on the phone), three from the Palos Verdes golf course telling Roland somebody if he didn't pay he couldnt get his shotgun), plus calls from around the world - not quite accidental, more like “let’s dial and see.” If they left a number I called back. Ansoula from Greece “just called to say hello,” Marco from Croatia spelled out his address with beeps between each letter (“Once you know me, you like” - I kept in touch with his brother for awhile), Anders from Sweden asked about the weather (I called, we wrote for awhile, he found me again years later, we’re Facebook friends now) …
Most came in through my answering machine. I picked up once & it was a young man who said he’d called because his girlfriend had just broken up with him & he was feeling down. We talked for about an hour. I asked why my number, and he couldn’t say. One very late night I’d been out with my friend Mary, & she was telling me about these women she knew - close friends from childhood - who said “Fuck you” to each other. It threw her, & we discussed it … I said, “I say ‘fuck’ a lot, but rarely ‘fuck you,’ and never to a friend. Mary dropped me off at home, and the phone rang. I assumed it was Mary (it was after 1am), so as a joke I answered, “Fuck you!” And heard … Click. The phone rang again, & this time I thought maybe it wasn’t Mary. The caller asked who I was, & I gave him my name. I asked who he was, and he said, “I’m a gangster, motherfucker!” Turns out someone had beeped him my phone number, he assumed it was all intentional, & he wasn’t at all happy with how I answered the phone. I explained about Mary & her friends, and my phone number being a pattern on the keypad, & I was kind of laughing, and he got it and we were eventually ok, but before hanging up he told me “but don’t answer the phone like that anymore!” and I promised I wouldn’t.
(I’m sure I’m missing some. This went on for years.)
posted by anshuman at 1:56 PM on January 13 [9 favorites]
Some calls made sense, (sort of) like my first, at 3am-ish, from “Fritz, looking for Jeff, we met at Rage and I just wanted to tell you you have the cutest ass I’ve ever seen.” (Fake number from Jeff, hope over reason after hearing my name & voice on my outgoing message.) Some didnt, like the 3am-ish call from Mike, who repeated a few times that he was a reporter (for People magazine, for the National Enquirer), & wanted to do a story on me because (shouting, more or less) “you’re so UGLY!” I also got a very long 3am-ish call from some goofy sounding man checking in on Johnny (“Are you doing ok? Are you eating your vegetables?”)
I got wrong numbers from prisons (sometimes just “you’ve received a call from,” once “Corinne, pick up, I want to talk to you honey (over and over, then a pause, then) … Bitch!”), small children, (“Hey baby, my name’s Corell - I’ve seen you around & I just wanted to tell you, I’ve fallen in love with you.”). I got death threats (generally not credible), obscene call (I remember one in a foreign language - you can tell), beeps when someone misdialed a beeper (or kids playing on the phone), three from the Palos Verdes golf course telling Roland somebody if he didn't pay he couldnt get his shotgun), plus calls from around the world - not quite accidental, more like “let’s dial and see.” If they left a number I called back. Ansoula from Greece “just called to say hello,” Marco from Croatia spelled out his address with beeps between each letter (“Once you know me, you like” - I kept in touch with his brother for awhile), Anders from Sweden asked about the weather (I called, we wrote for awhile, he found me again years later, we’re Facebook friends now) …
Most came in through my answering machine. I picked up once & it was a young man who said he’d called because his girlfriend had just broken up with him & he was feeling down. We talked for about an hour. I asked why my number, and he couldn’t say. One very late night I’d been out with my friend Mary, & she was telling me about these women she knew - close friends from childhood - who said “Fuck you” to each other. It threw her, & we discussed it … I said, “I say ‘fuck’ a lot, but rarely ‘fuck you,’ and never to a friend. Mary dropped me off at home, and the phone rang. I assumed it was Mary (it was after 1am), so as a joke I answered, “Fuck you!” And heard … Click. The phone rang again, & this time I thought maybe it wasn’t Mary. The caller asked who I was, & I gave him my name. I asked who he was, and he said, “I’m a gangster, motherfucker!” Turns out someone had beeped him my phone number, he assumed it was all intentional, & he wasn’t at all happy with how I answered the phone. I explained about Mary & her friends, and my phone number being a pattern on the keypad, & I was kind of laughing, and he got it and we were eventually ok, but before hanging up he told me “but don’t answer the phone like that anymore!” and I promised I wouldn’t.
(I’m sure I’m missing some. This went on for years.)
posted by anshuman at 1:56 PM on January 13 [9 favorites]
I met my current partner when I forgot the name of an old hookup and called him instead, by mistake. It wasn't a random number, he was in my contacts, but we didn't really know each other - we'd briefly (less than two weeks) had the same terrible summer job two years prior.
We've now been together nine years; we bought a house together, got married, and had a child together, in that order. The Masai are right!
posted by subdee at 6:55 PM on January 13 [9 favorites]
We've now been together nine years; we bought a house together, got married, and had a child together, in that order. The Masai are right!
posted by subdee at 6:55 PM on January 13 [9 favorites]
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posted by Kitteh at 11:48 AM on January 12 [3 favorites]