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I have a phone book in my office that sits on my desk underneath my phone, and with the exception of today, is extremely rarely used. When I need a number, I look it up online. When I need a business name, I look it up online. It’s not just a matter of convenience, but I find it so much faster to find what I’m actually looking for online. So while flipping through the newspaper-like pages that turn your fingers colors today, I had a thought – are phone books completely obsolete and no longer needed nowadays?
My family dropped our house phone number a year or so ago, and I imagine that many households have done the same since they are really unneeded with nearly everyone having their own cell phone. Our local phone book actually looks thinner than I remember it being, which could be an indication that I’m right.
So assuming that everyone’s habits are similiar to mine, maybe it’s time to retire the phone book after a long healthy life of 131 years?
Note: This post is over 4 years old. Although it's not a fresh post, feel free to comment or share your thoughts anyway. I read and enjoy every comment that is posted here.
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Wow, you could be right. I hardly ever use the hard-copy phonebook anymore. Your post made me remember the few times I did use it over that last year, and it was almost always to look up restaurants to call for their open hours. For some reason restaurants are hard to find online if their web address isn’t exactly their name. I tend to get restaurant review sites instead. Also, you would think all restaurants would post their hours on their website. I understand why some don’t in the phone book, as it only comes out once a year, but websites can be easily updated.
Maybe soon we’ll be able to save all those trees that go into the millions of phone books issued each year!