The first phone book was published in New Haven, Connecticut in 1878. It was considered for well over 100 years to be an indispensable part of communication, advertisement, an excuse to show off how strong one is by ripping it into two pieces, and as Navan R. Johnson claimed, to legitimize one’s self. AT&T in Atlanta, Georgia this last summer was the first major American city to petition the state’s public utilities commission to stop sending a hard copy of the phone book (yellow and white pages) to every resident with or without a phone.
The phone book. A cultural icon right up there with the hamburger…it’s always there and it’s good for you. But once you’re done, you don’t think about it for a while. Cultural icons come and go…some staying longer than others…like Elvis and mood rings, others slowly fading away, like the tailfin and lip synching. But the time has come for America to jump on that band wagon and bid a fair adieu to the old mainstay of barber shop chairs, land fills, and wrong numbers dialed because you share a name with quite a few other people. And by saying goodbye, we save a great deal of trees.
Is anyone mourning? I can’t hear it and the trend is spreading. All over America the battle between the White, the Yellow and the Government Blues is going the way of the Dodo. I say it’s time. I couldn’t tell you when the last time was that I needed to look up a phone number. “We stopped riding horses, too,” said Rick Watson, a professor in management information systems at the University of Georgia. “It’s just part of technological change that occurs and the move to electronic services, which are more convenient.” If we need a number we just type it in and an array of hits come up. It’s quicker and more covenant.
But there’s always a “but.” Do we lose anything with the move to paperless search engines? My first grade teacher frequently used phone books to teach the order of the ABCs, how to spell and look up numbers and names, how to write what we want in an advertisement with only so many letters available, and how to catch spelling errors. Ok, that last one was my fifth grade teacher but do you realize how many mistakes can be found while just flipping through the Yellows? Now when we misspell the computer not only knows there is a misspelling but alerts us to the fact and even offers suggestions as to the proper spelling.
Let’s say goodbye to big bulky phone books. I’m a big advocate of saving trees. And I like not feeling guilty about having several phone books that I know I will never read stacked up in the garage. As with all progress, the change we embrace opens doors as it closes others. Such is life.
When that survey comes around take a last look at that cultural icon, try to rip it in two for the heck of it, and sign up for “No Delivery.” The trees are already breathing a sigh of relief. Gone are the days of fifth graders thinking they are smarter than the average adult just because they can find typos in a phone book.
However, there are two things the average 5th grader doesn’t know better than an adult. Put me on the show and let’s see some of those in my generation take back a degree of their credibility. I can do it in two questions. Ask the average 5th grader what the difference is between the “Yellow Pages” and “White Pages” and I bet the youngin’ won’t know.
And even more obscure is just who is Navan R. Johnson and why was he so excited about a phone book?
