Do you ever use a phonebook?

[FordSVT]

I don't recall the last time I looked in a phone book. When they're delivered, they go straight to the trash.

I find everything I need online -- from services, to pizza, to movie tickets. And I can even read helpful reviews at the same time. The phone book is not merely slow and unwieldy, it's wholly inferior and obsolete.

Hardly. If one knows how to properly use a telephone book is it quite simple. If there's a power outage or communications outage, it is far superior to a computer.

Side note: This past weekend I tried to look up the telephone number of a former high school classmate. There was so much inaccurate information on the multitude of Internet telephone number searches I was almost at a loss. After an hour, I was able to locate this person's mother in Wisconsin and make contact.

I liken the above statement about inferior and obsolete to the people who work behind the counter at an auto parts store and only know how to use the computer to find parts. Many a time I have witnessed an "old timer" who knew how to cross-reference through the catalogs to locate a part for a customer when the computer claimed the item wasn't stocked.

Every single thing I need to reference on a daily basis at my place of work is available in both electronic and hard forms, and I can definitely tell you most people check out the hard copies both inside the office and out in the field. I can grab a certain colour binder and look up a diagram I've seen before in seconds. It would actually take longer to log in to our online resource (it times out) before I even started looking. Manuals are more durable and easier to move around from table to table than a PC or laptop is as well.

 

[Brian]

I use the YPmobile app on my phone, which is always with me. No dragging of hardcopies or PCs or laptops necessary.

 

[Alidar Jarok]

I'll use it in rare situations. Some local businesses might not have a website, for example. Otherwise, there's no need to bother.