Portland, Oregon

Portland, Oregon

Wednesday, May 18, 2016

Phone Books

Do they still print those big thick phone books? I haven't seen one in ages. They used to deliver them to your door and I don't remember how we got rid of the old ones.

My sister-in-law keeps the Houston phone books on a table by her chair and uses them religiously. That would be because she's never learned to use a computer.

Give that a little thought. How many trees have to die to make all those paper phone books? I want the people who don't use computers to be able to have paper phone books but isn't that an awful amount of waste given how many people today have phone numbers available on their cell phones?

I don't know how phone companies would know who needed phone books and who didn't but it sure seems a waste of resources if they're still cranking them out for every customer.

Do you still receive paper phone books? Would you miss it if it ceased to show up at your door? Oops, there I go cutting jobs.

22 comments:

  1. We no longer have a landline, so we no longer get phone books. I use the the computer for phone numbers, but I wish we had at least the local phone book.

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    1. I forgot about so many people not having a land line these days.

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  2. We get a card in the mail that lets us opt in to getting either the white pages or the yellow pages or both. At the first of the year post office often has stacks of them you can take. I like having the yellow pages but the print has gotten so small in the white pages that they aren't worth getting anymore. I do know the secret for finding phone numbers online and I hate that.

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    1. I never go to the post office so I suppose that's why I haven't seen them. It does seem at one time there was a card but I haven't noticed one in a very long time.

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  3. No I don't think we get them anymore. I just looked in the cupboard and I saw three business directories, which have never been used. I recall there was a big fuss the last time phone books were delivered because most people didn't want them and recycling them was an issue.
    I thought about jobs too. But some jobs do just go away. We just have to create neew ones to take their place.

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    1. Linda, I agree with you. At some point people just have to retrain and go into another field of work. I always feel bad about people losing jobs but that's always been the case as society advances.

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  4. We don't have a landline but we sometimes get thinner phone books - maybe just local yellow pages. Who would have ever thought we'd see the day that most people don't have landlines and newspapers??

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    1. The lack of land lines and newspapers going away have made a significant impact on our lives today. Lots of jobs in those industries that have been cut.

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  5. We no longer receive the traditional large phone book, but still get a yearly business directory with yellow pages too. Our county is fortunately able to recycle these books.

    I'd be glad to get rid of our land line, but my hubby is not in tune with the use of cell phones for every day use. He considers them to be for emergency use (think stranded in a car on a highway, which has never happened to us!).

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    1. We also have a land line because that's what husband wants. Also, if we had only our cell phones I'd have to master operating the phone feature of my iPhone! Currently I'm using my iPhone for everything except a phone.

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  6. I miss the old phone books that had all the info I needed in them. I used to use them to look up all kinds of businesses and services in our area, ie doctors and repair men. Now we get slim phone books delivered to us but they only cover limited areas and usually not the areas I want phone numbers for. Its a pain. I can get grumpy about the current state of phone books! Grrrrr!

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    1. Yes, there was always a particular space where we kept phone books. They also grew in number as the years went on and we got books produced by businesses, counties, and even a directory of Christian businesses.

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  7. We have no cell service here. I have to drive 4 miles for a signal so I appreciate the book though it isn't much larger than the pamphlets you pick up in a doctor's office. Out of town visitors crack up when they realize that is my phone book. I do rely on the yellow pages part.

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    1. Gracious Patti, how far do you live from civilization? I'd go into digital withdrawal if I came to see you.

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  8. Our phone books go directly from the mailbox to the recycling bin. And yet.... the last time I needed someone's phone number, I had several fruitless searches on the internet, punctuated by "sign up and find out MORE about this person" every now and then. I did find myself wishing for an old-fashioned phone book.

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    1. I'm pretty much used to looking online for phone numbers but it isn't always easier. The other thing I miss is my tattered dictionary. I go online for that too but it doesn't feel as good as my paper dictionary I've used for years. I used to make notes in paper phone books, and those days are over.

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  9. And what do small children sit on now at Thanksgiving?

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    1. Absolutely, something else children today will never experience.

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  10. We still receive a small, local phone book. We seldom use it, because I search out numbers on the Internet. Another tradition I'd becoming a thing of the past. Sad.

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    1. It's not enough to have the big fat directories, then we start with the little ones. The one that bugs me is the directory of Christian businesses. I try to avoid those. I figure if they have to advertise they're Christian there's a problem.

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  11. I don't have a land line so I don't get them either. But Marty is right. What do we use now when we want to raise something up. I remember at the office I had the monitor sitting on phone books, then I moved to reams of paper when phone books weren't available.

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    1. Oh, by all means, fat phone books come in handy for a lot of things other than phone numbers. Young people will never know what they've missed.

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