Phonebooks. So many questions unanswered…
May 21, 2008 – 7:43 pmI got home from work today and saw a phonebook outside my door. Swell. A phonebook. When am I going to use a phonebook? Do people still use phonebooks? They do?? Haven’t they heard of the internet? Don’t they know you can just search for a name and find the number if it’s listed? No flipping through pages and squinting at tiny print. They can even look up a number to find a name. Can’t do that very easily with a phonebook.
The phonebook will sit outside my front door until the office people at my complex remove it. The same thing happened last year. It took about a week before it disappeared. What a waste of paper. Can I opt out of phonebooks? How did they know to even send me a phonebook? Who are “they” anyway? Can I find their number in the phonebook? I bet it would be faster if I looked online…
I guess it’s just another example of some old technology hanging on for dear life. The same goes for newspapers and paper bills and cursive handwriting.
My aunt, and elementary school teacher, tells me they’re still teaching kids cursive. Why?, I ask. Because it’s in the curriculum. Because they need to know how to sign their name. Pff, then only teach them how to sign their name and spend the rest of the time teaching them how to type. Better yet, spend more time on math and science so our children don’t fall further behind other countries.
Woah, wasn’t I just talking about phonebooks?
13 Responses to “Phonebooks. So many questions unanswered…”
amen to the cursive handwriting comment
By nbradley on May 21, 2008 - 9:26 pm
i don’t know why i just called myself nbradley. sadness.
By nelson on May 21, 2008 - 9:27 pm
now you’re double approved
By Mike on May 21, 2008 - 9:37 pm
When I read “Haven’t they heard of the internet?” I got confused and thought I was reading Wysz’s blog, waha!
By Sophia on May 21, 2008 - 10:16 pm
Mike for president!
I agree…cursive handwriting is pointless and hard to read. I pretty much faked it throughout elementary school. I still don’t know how ‘z’ goes…I always just printed ‘z’ and attached a squiggly line to the next letter.
By Sandy on May 21, 2008 - 10:16 pm
“spend more time on math and science so our children don’t fall further behind other countries” — hear hear!
By Rowyn on May 21, 2008 - 11:01 pm
whoa…i just noticed that sophia and I posted comments at the EXACT same time! and…yes, I did come back for a second read…it was still completely hilarious the second time.
By Sandy on May 21, 2008 - 11:17 pm
Totally agree that phonebooks, paper bills, etc are on their way out. But, since we all work at Google I think it’s easy to get caught up in the mentality that all business can and should take place with the Internet involved. It’s certainly where lots of places are moving towards, but consider small businesses who have a limited advertising budget and only want to cater to local businesses – it’s hard to get them on the Internet if their customers aren’t using it as well. Think small town America or non-Silicon Valley. So while there’s no good reason to place a phonebook on the doorstep of someone like you or me, I think it finds value for non-Internet users who do exist and an older generation who, sadly to say, engages in interactions at a pace we find mind-numbingly slow. Opting out is the most ideal solution, but phonebooks I imagine promise advertisers a certain amount of “reach” and “publicity” which translates into placing one on everyone’s doorstep. Our only hope, I imagine, is for Dunder Mufflin to go out of business and thereby cause the price of paper to skyrocket.
I had another longer comment about cursive/education that I started to write about, but I’ll save that for another day.
By Reid on May 22, 2008 - 12:00 am
PS – broken link – whenever I’m not on /blog I click “random” and go to /blog. But when I’m at /blog and click “random” it takes me to that page, which is a 404
By Reid on May 22, 2008 - 12:43 am
wow, time stamps are really revealing about how much of a loser i am
By Reid on May 22, 2008 - 12:43 am
Just to clarify…I understand that phonebooks are still useful to many people (older, people without internet access, etc). I just don’t want to deal with them…and I like to overgeneralize things and make simplified sarcastic statements so I don’t have to type as much.
By Mike on May 22, 2008 - 7:08 am
cool. since you’re a strong guy, you might like this:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=_pGvEGFkvNs
By Reid on May 22, 2008 - 7:25 am
woah! that’s what I need to do with the phonebook on my front steps!
By Mike on May 22, 2008 - 8:15 am