She did what is logical: she called a friend who might know. She wanted a "phone number" for a friend of hers. The phone situation can vary and it is different from my childhood and early years. We talked briefly and "phone book" was mentioned. t.ly/Qoz_b
In the 1950's and 60's, phone books were still distributed by the local phone company. The list was in alphabetical order by last name and showed the last name, the first name, the street address and the phone number. We understood that phoning that number makes a phone ring in that household. When a family member answered, you stated who was calling and who you wanted to speak to.
Here, we still have what is called a "landline" now but used to be the household phone and very likely, the only phone in the house. We like our landline since it provides a single number that we can both use and it connects to an answering machine that will record a voice message. Maybe ¾ of the calls we get these days are labeled "spam risk" and we usually don't answer those calls. We have read that some spammers and scammers are able to fake numbers and names but we have not knowingly experienced anything like that.
Since a large number of people carry their (only?) phone in their pocket, you may need their own individual number to arrange a conversation with them. But, carrying that phone right with you means that whatever and wherever you are, you can be interrupted, even at very wrong times, by a phone call. Such immediate moments of contact are frequently used as dramatic or comedic tools in today's movies and television shows.
Economically, it can help businesses and bank accounts to advertise. Our postal systems will deliver flyers to individual houses but you need addresses to send them. So, email is currently popular as a cheap, quick way of explaining the wonderful sale your store is about to offer, if you have email addresses. Texting is probably cheaper than emailing but emails can deliver pictures which matter in human communication. Still, for phones and texting, one needs phone numbers.
