Achi news desk-
Telephone books have been in circulation since the 19th century. These days, in this high-tech digital world, if someone needs a phone number, “I Google it,” said Bridgewater, NS, resident Wayne Desouza.
When presented with a phone book, King’s College University student Bjorn Schmidt said he had seen them around before.
“Maybe at those old phones you pay for, you might find one there,” Schmidt said, describing a pay phone, admitting he’d never used one before.
Compared to previous versions, phone books are now much thinner, seemingly shrinking annually and lacking names, numbers and business listings on the white and yellow pages. Many Canadians now use smartphones, which are often unannounced, unlike landlines.
Digital anthropologist Giles Crouch is surprised they still exist.
“Here we are, we’ve had smart phones for almost 20 years now, and yet we still have phone books.”
Considering that the books are shrinking annually it raises the question; who actually uses them?
“Thirty percent of seniors don’t have access to the internet and don’t use it for information,” said Canadian Association of Retired Persons CEO Bill VanGorder, who added that because of this, many people older people still rely on phone books. “This year with the books being thinner, we are going to hear that they are very disappointed.”
Phone books use numbers listed with phone companies, but it also turns out, not all the information in a phone book is accurate.
“My phone number is actually there, but the phone number is not working,” said Bernice Murphy-Critch, a Halifax resident. “It’s basically the wrong number.”
Crouch said advertisers are paying for the phone books, for now.
“If those advertising dollars dry up for print, and move to digital, that’s going to kill the phone book,” Crouch said. “I would give him five years tops.”
