I Use an Abacus, Too
Joelle said at some point on July 18, 2007
Does anyone actually use the phone book anymore? Like, the yellow pages? I can’t think of the last time I’ve used it or seen anyone use it. By now, it seems obsolete what with Google and that whole Internet and everything. It’s halfway through 2007. We’re almost finished with this decade and we’re still using the yellow pages? When I was a kid, I thought I’d be traveling in airlocks by now, not looking up Szechuan in the phone book.
I always loathe the day that the phone books come out because you know they will sit outside along with all your neighbors’ for a week while they sun fade and get all weathered. Eventually, you throw it away or someone uses it to re-balance their patio furniture or something. Would that money not be well-spent elsewhere? The amount of advertising that people pay to be put in the Yellow Pages could be used somewhere else, the amount of paper and trees they’re wasting by even printing them, the cost and the emissions of the gas used by all the delivery drivers that dump those piles of phone books on our doorsteps… it’s all a bit too much. I especially love that I don’t even have a land-line phone and I still get the local phone company yellow pages, along with about 3 others from competing companies. That’s effective.
Now I’m seeing commercials for the phone book. They’re clearly desperate to get people back to using the phone book. Why not give up the ghost and embrace technology? I suppose we have to account for the people who don’t have computers, but that’s what dialing 411 is for. If you’re that desperate to find a local shop that specializes in 3-D jigsaw puzzles, then call Information, suck up the quarter and don’t be a cheapskate. It’s still far less expensive than the cost of printing all those books.
Of course, we have to take into account those who can’t afford the quarter to call 411, but then they shouldn’t be shopping for 3-D jigsaw puzzles anyway.
Moxie Design Studios™
from West Palm Beach, FL • Cocktail: Champagne Bellini
Dude. AMEN. I think you should be able to refuse the stupid thing. I throw them away every time. Such a waste.
What would my wife use to hit me with without the phone book? Oh wait… Uh, yeah, down with phone books!
from Michigan
I had this discussion with my brother-in-law yesterday! It is SUCH a waste of time and resources. I dont’ know anyone who uses the phone book for anything...including leveling furniture!
from Arkansas
I still use the phone book b/c not everyone in town is listed on the internet, and sometimes the computer is busy...with stuff.
I completely am with you on the whole phone book deal. I never use it anymore, but I still had FOUR different phone books delivered to my apartment this year. Not one, but FOUR! That’s just ridiculous. I could see having one..so if the internet was down and I needed to find a number, but I don’t know why a million different companies need to make a phone book...with all the same information. No wait...one might have a coupon for Pizza Slut while the other one has a coup for Domiho’s. I stand corrected.
from San Diego, CA • Cocktail: slightly dirty Grey Goose martini
@Shelley: right, that’s what I mean. I don’t really mind if I have one, for those exact reasons. But if I’m not even signed up with the local phone company, why am I getting 4 phone books? It makes no sense.
from Houston • Cocktail: Mango Mojito
Check with your local zoo dude.
The local zoo in Houston is always looking for phone books. Apparently, a lot of the animals like to play with them and shred them to make nesty places.
I actually used them a couple weeks ago, when I had a flat bike tire. I had gone to a sporting goods store, mistakenly thinking they would be able to help, only to be told “Uh… we have bike pumps?” So I asked to see their Yellow Pages to find a bike repair shop. I thought at the time that I hadn’t used them in literally years. I haven’t had a land line in nearly a decade.
from fairfax, va
OOH! i just used one a couple weeks ago too. we have tv, phone and internet through our cable provider. of course we had an outage with NO service to any of them. so i dug out the phone book and called them on my cell phone to find out what the deal was. of course ... i COULD have called 411, but i had the phone book. might as well use it! once every three years isn’t bad use of an entire tree worth of paper. is it?
from Dearborn (Detroit), MI
The phone book is useless to me lately. I can never find anyone I’m looking for (even doctors) when I know who it is. But I do still find the yellow pages helpful when I don’t know who I’m looking for....
from Chattanooga, TN
Amen! I’m in the same boat.. no landline and no need for one phonebook, much less three or folr. My boyfriend however refuses to give in and insists on having a phonebook. I wish they’d deliver them on a request only basis or something…
from Louisville, OH • Cocktail: White Russian
Damn, 411 is only a quarter in CA? It’s $1.75 for us, and half the time they give the wrong number. But yeah, I have 4 different phone books, of which I’ve used 2 times in as many years. I wonder if the phone book will ever disappear?
from San Diego, CA • Cocktail: slightly dirty Grey Goose martini
@ThePooper: I may be dating myself with the quarter remark. lol.
from Southern, US • Cocktail: Mojito
Here in Charlotte the phone book is on a CD. No muss, no fuss. :o)
If I had a pet peeve list, this would be in the top 5 I’m pretty certain. I hate, loathe, HATE getting MULTIPLE phone books. Gah, I’m getting all stressed out just thinking about phone books. lol
On top of all the reasons that have been mentioned, as a business owner, I ALSO hate getting calls from yellow pages sales people asking me to advertise. Then getting junk mail from them trying to trick me into paying for ads I never authorized or ordered.
Now I just say, “I do not believe in phone books! I do not believe in advertising! I do not want anybody to ever call me, ever!” Then they go away, sometimes after telling me I’m an idiot. So very satisfying.
from san diego • Cocktail: margarita
okay, so you are sooo right with this one. the neighbor gals across the way will not bring theirs in. we have started this game were we keep putting it right in the way of their door, and they kick it aside. it’s been a week and a half. tonight the bf upped the stakes and put it it the way of the garage. drive over it or move it skanks! so tonight when they got home he watched. one of the girls got out of the car to see what it was, peeked in the bag, and picked it up… only to toss it into the shrubbery, get back in the car and pull into the garage.
i hate those girls.
from Los Angeles, CA
On the other hand.... I enjoy getting them because they make an excellent “Monitor Heightener” for those of us on a budget. Two books puts it just about at eye level. (I know, it’s not ecologically responsible, but it saves me a few bucks.)
I leave mine sitting on the front porch until trash day, and then pick them up on the way to the curb. I know you’re supposed to recycle them, but they just irritate me too much.
I always sigh when I see a new phone book on my doorstep, lug it inside, and add it to the pile of them collecting dust on a shelf in the office. I don’t have a land line either, and I haven’t used a phone book once in the 3+ years I’ve lived here. Why do I keep them? I have no idea.
from Chicago
Actually, I tried talking Doc out of advertising in the yellow pages for this very reason. She went ahead and did it anyway. We ended up with bunches and bunches of new patients from it. Who knew?