Folklore and Phone Books

I read this story earlier, and the folklorist in me just had to comment on it. The Book of the Undead: Why Won’t Phone Books Die?

The article talks about how phone books have outlived their usefulness. Any more people can look up the information they want on the computer, or even on their phone. Yet not everyone has the internet on their phone. I do have the internet, but I also pull out the phone book on occasion. And I always have one in my car that gets used even more.

But I think it was the idea of studying phone books from the point of view of a folklorist that struck me. Phone books have been such a part of our culture for so many years. We do draw on them – but what do we draw? Why do we draw on them? I had never heard about drawing on them so as to be able to locate them again after they’d been discarded, but I have drawn on a phone book or two in my day. What is put in them? What kinds of things do we include in a phone book? Why do we include that? What are they used for outside their intended purpose? Why do we use them for those things?

I hope someone answers those questions before it’s too late.