Remember in the old days when you wanted to make a telephone call, and the first thing you’d do was to reach for the handy telephone book?  You’d better latch on to those memories and tuck them away in a permanent parking space in your brain, because phone books may be starting their slow withdrawl from the home.

Cincinnati Bell just received permission from Ohio’s governing body over local utilities to ditch the delivery of White Pages, those that are generally restricted to residential listings only, unless customers specifically request them.  They’ll go right on distributing the Yellow Pages, which are advertiser-supported, because a dollar is always a dollar.

I’ll admit to using the Yellow Pages once in a while, although I honestly can’t remember the last time I did or the last thing I looked up.  Thanks to the internet, I can look up a number faster online.  And, as the article mentions, thanks to smart phones like my iPhone, once I dial a number the first time, I can permanently save it in my phone so I’ll never have to look it up again.

Just this past Monday, while I was in California, Archie and I decided to take a ride along the coast to Santa Cruz; he mentioned a popular attraction there, and we decided to make sure it was open.  From my phone, I went online, called up the business’s website, verified their hours and got driving directions, and was presented with a hyperlink with their phone number; which I just tapped that link, the phone made the call for me and I was able to find out when the next tour was scheduled to begin.  All that from a telephone.

It’s probably not the kind of thing Alexander Graham Bell ever imagined would be possible, but some change is definitely good.

Plus, with so many people ditching their landline telephone service in favor of cell phones only, fewer people I want to talk to even appear in the phone book these days.  There’s no printed directory of cell phone numbers, despite those pesky chain emails that Snopes.com keeps busting month after month.

I note that a local consumer group is upset over this idea, and they say that customers should have to “opt out” of the plan to stop receiving phone books rather than having to “opt in” to continue receiving them.  The problem with that notion is that the majority of people who don’t use phone books anymore aren’t likely to take the time to decline, and that would result in the continuing cost and waste of paper.  Those who need their White Pages, or are just nostalgic enough to convince themselves that they do need them, have just enough motivation to take the action so that they’ll still have them.

Sometimes, you have to embrace the public’s laziness and make it work for you.

What about you?  When is the last time you looked up a number the “old-fashioned” way?