At one point or another in our lives we have seen or used a phone book. With cell phones, navigational systems, and the internet, could the phone book be as extinct as the dinosaurs?
In 2009, some states on the East Coast, such as New York City for example, have eliminated that use of White Pages! On the other hand Yellow Pages are still being delivered at this present time. Many other states around the country are looking to follow in the same footsteps.
Although about 70 percent of people still use the Yellow Pages as a reference guide to look up numbers on local businesses, more are turning to technology to research this information. Meaning this current percentage is due to decrease significantly. In the long run this could be good news for the environment. Approximately, over 20 thousand tons of paper is used to create phone books. Aside from the increase of technology, landlines are become non-existent in homes these days. This means that people don’t have a need for a phone book if they do not have a phone to use. Plus, with more Americans on the go, they don’t have time to sit down to thumb through a reference book. Dictionaries and Thesauruses are also effect by this. Looking up the meaning of words can be done via internet or cell phones. The new generation prefers this way to be faster and more efficient when studying!
By the early 1920 s New York issued over a million phone books in circulation. It took an estimated six hundred delivery men to distribute these books to residents. Of course this was the only means to look up information in those days because there were only landline phones. In almost 90 years, the phone book could be a thing of the past. It may not be a choice of preference, but a common way of living our lives for the future.
