Who needs phone books?

I found an inch-thick copy of the local (not the one in the picture) Yellow Book clogging up our smallish mailbox at the post office this morning.

I bought it home and threw it into the trash.

Why?

Because we haven't used a phone book at home for years. When I want to call someone who isn't already in my home phone or cell phone address book, I look up the number online.

If I'm searching for a business - say a plumber, roofer or heating and air conditioning firm - I Google it.

I used to keep a phone book around, just in case. But I never used it and it became annoying clutter.

I did open the phone book we got today, just to confirm that our unlisted number has remained unlisted. It has.

Phone books have become increasingly irrelevant with the proliferation of cell phones. Neither of Maria's two kids has a home land line - they use their cell phones exclusively.

Younger users are leading the charge away from land lines and many older people are omitting a land line when they set up housekeeping in a new home.

USA Today reported last December that there were about 170 million land lines in use in the U.S., compared with nearly 250 million cell phones. The figures include residential and commercial use.

Pay phones are disappearing too. There's a gaping space in the downtown Jonesboro Post Office where pay phones have been unbolted from the wall and carted away because they weren't getting used.

So if I were a Yellow Book advertising sales guy, I'd start looking for a new job.

It's surprising how quickly this transformation has occurred. When I was in my 20s, newly arrived in Indianapolis to begin my newspaper career with The Indianapolis News, I was elated to open up the 1968 Indianapolis phone book and find my name, number and address. (I don't remember the number, but the address was Apt. 1A, 3360 Meadows Court.)

It was kinda like Navin Johnson tearing open the new phone book to see his listing in Steve Martin's "The Jerk."

I need to go back to the post office this afternoon to ship a CD and a DVD sold on Amazon.com, and I'll peer into the trash cans there to see if they're filling up with Yellow Books.