why do peeple use hashtags to show that they mean a phone number?

[Russel]

i mean like when some one is saying something like "whats ur phone number" they can say "whats ur phone#". what i mean is like why have people started using hashtags to mean the word number? i asked a few peeple at school and i dont think anyone really knows the answer to this lol

[Sandy]

Using # for numbers has been around for many years before "hashtags" came into existence.

[PC]

Yeah this isn't new. That's what everyone knew the hashtag to mean for years and years...

[Molly]

This is sad lol. I'm 14 and "#" means number. People started using it to mean "hashtag" for social media. But it's always meant number. They're saying "what's your phone number" but # is a quicker way than typing.

[Tiffany]

The others are absolutely right. It's unfortunate that tv and social media are dumbing people down to the point where they're unaware of things that are totally common knowledge to most people. It is also located on your telephone and referred to as a pound sign. Like when you call a toll free number and the recording asks you to press the pound sign after you make your entry. I'm not saying you're dumb, I'm just making a point that tv and social media have given no incentive for younger people to learn.

[?]

# means number..

[Waltz]

Before "Twitter" there was no such thing as "hashtag."

The "#" has always meant number.

[Chanjuv Naim]

because the original name of that symbol is the " number sign"