Will you miss the Yellow Pages?

I hesitate to think how many trees were consumed in producing the old yellow pages, general telephone directories,Next catalogue, RS Components (boxed sets)………. I do miss Axminster Tools catalogue though that I could flick through and choose the right tool or fitment – much nicer than trawling through an online search.

Our diminutive Yellow Pages – a shadow of its former self – has just alighted under the letterbox. Unlikely to be used. But the question is often raised about those who do not have internet access – what will they now do? This “underclass” is often cited to criticise on-line offers that make life cheaper and easier for the privileged.

Who misses out?
90% of households have internet access. Of the remaining 10%, 2% have internet access elsewhere, 6.4% feel they don’t need it, 2% feel they lack the necessary skills.
“Internet access varies depending on household composition. While nearly all households with children had an internet connection in 2017 (98%), access to the internet by single-adult households varied, depending on the age of the responder. For households with one adult aged 65 and over, 61% had internet access. In contrast, 88% of households with only one adult aged 16 to 64 years had internet access. The vast majority of households with internet access had fixed broadband (93%). Mobile broadband via mobile phone networks was used by 26% of households as an internet connection.”

https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/householdcharacteristics/homeinternetandsocialmediausage/bulletins/internetaccesshouseholdsandindividuals/2017

So it seems the lowest (relatively speaking) take up is among the single over 65s – around 1.4 million without access at home. Many of these will be people with all their faculties but, maybe, not having been educated with computing at school or in work, have not got to grips with it. In the olden days you could go to “night school” to pick up useful skills; sadly this seems to have declined and become expensive. Perhaps it needs resurrecting? The internet is here to stay.

It is years since I last used Yellow Pages or the phone directory. They are put in a drawer to replace the previous versions. At one time we were forbidden from putting Yellow Pages in the recycling bin, but this is allowed nowadays.

Local businesses advertise in the village magazine, a free newspaper and various other local magazines that drop through the letterbox. These are occasionally useful but almost all the information I need is online.

I hope someone will keep some examples of Yellow Pages to look at in years to come. My mother kept a copy of the phone book from when we lived in a small village in Scotland. Our number was 163, and it was before nuisance calls were invented.

I certainly missed this Latest Conversation as I still cant access it . But no I will not miss the Yellow Pages , at one time it was useful but not now in the digital age , in any case small communities where I live have their own free booklets posted through the door offering all sorts of services . Many people are more liable to employ local workers as they know who they are personally and can easily judge if they are good or not . Not so big business where tale after tale of disasters appear on Which. Word of mouth has a bigger positive advertising effect than the £100,000,s pumped in by large organisations to the advertising media.

Sad to see it go but I am not surprised the last time I used the Yellow Pages was when there was a power cut it’s just quicker to search on-line.