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Phonebooks (lemmy.world)
submitted 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) by WoahWoah@lemmy.world to c/nostupidquestions@lemmy.world

I was talking to a coworker about these new phishing attacks that send your name and address and sometimes a picture of your house, and I was saying how creepy it is, and they told me that phonebooks were delivered to everyone and used to have like literally everyone in a city listed by last name with their phone number and address. Is that for real?

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[-] wallybeavis@lemmy.world 53 points 1 month ago

Mid 40s, and I too feel old now - at first I thought OP was setting us up for a joke. The local phone company still delivered phone books to everyone in my city until a few years ago.

I think it was an old legal requirement for any phone company providing landline services to also provide phonebooks. Unfortunately most weren't even recycled, they were either burned in backyard firepits, or just thrown out

[-] WoahWoah@lemmy.world 10 points 1 month ago

No joke! I don't know if I've ever actually seen a phone book. How would they even fit? Seems like they would have been enormous.

I did see a payphone in a restaurant once but it didn't work. I saw another one outside of a gas station on a road trip in the south. That one had a dial tone, but I think you had to pay more to call anyone we knew, so we just took selfies pretending to use it.

[-] brygphilomena@lemmy.world 24 points 1 month ago

Residential listings were "white pages" and businesses were "yellow pages."

Yes, they were big, printed on very thin paper, with small typeface.

[-] Geekocracy@lemmy.world 5 points 1 month ago

Wow! I grew up with these. (Nostalgia intensifies!)

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this post was submitted on 28 Sep 2024
143 points (93.3% liked)

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