The yellow pages only had businesses. It was the big white book that had all the people's numbers in it. It also had addresses O.o
this post was submitted on 19 Jan 2026
398 points (96.7% liked)
Memes
13862 readers
1325 users here now
Post memes here.
A meme is an idea, behavior, or style that spreads by means of imitation from person to person within a culture and often carries symbolic meaning representing a particular phenomenon or theme.
An Internet meme or meme, is a cultural item that is spread via the Internet, often through social media platforms. The name is by the concept of memes proposed by Richard Dawkins in 1972. Internet memes can take various forms, such as images, videos, GIFs, and various other viral sensations.
- Wait at least 2 months before reposting
- No explicitly political content (about political figures, political events, elections and so on), !politicalmemes@lemmy.ca can be better place for that
- Use NSFW marking accordingly
Laittakaa meemejä tänne.
- Odota ainakin 2 kuukautta ennen meemin postaamista uudelleen
- Ei selkeän poliittista sisältöä (poliitikoista, poliittisista tapahtumista, vaaleista jne) parempi paikka esim. !politicalmemes@lemmy.ca
- Merkitse K18-sisältö tarpeen mukaan
founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS
But not full names, only initial and surname
Would they though? I think "kids today" are probably a lot less privacy conscious having grown up in an internet with social media and other privacy invasive technologies natively.
Back then people weren't so fixated on each other's business. After 2001, that changed pretty dramatically
Ok but your phone number wasnt in the yellow pages, that was for businesses. Your number woulda been listed in the white pages
And blue for government.
You could opt-out of those. And it was pretty reliable to do so.
This. Ive known people that were just out of abusive relationships and kept their information hidden for that reason, including the white pages
Uhhhhhh, no we weren't. It cost extra to be unlisted, so most of us just lived with it. But there was a loophole. You could tell them what name you wanted listed, and they wouldn't do any verification. I still get mail for "Rusty Shacklesord." They misheard me when I got listed, and hell, I wasn't going to correct them. Whenever I get a call or mail for Mr. Shacklesord, I know it's bullshit and I can do whatever I want to the asshole.
That name sounds like a Power Rangers villain.
I was very excited when my name, Johnson, Navin R appeared in the phone book. "Things are going to start happening to me now."
White Pages was home # listings. Yellow Pages was business listings.
For many cities they were the same book.
For small cities, large cities had multiple white pages books. A-F G-N O-Z for example.
Same book, but still color separated with business in yellow and residential in white.
load more comments
(2 replies)
load more comments
(1 replies)
All these damn kids all over the lawn.
Having just read the thread about commercial paper shredding, your comment took my mind to a weird place.
My mom saves up all her junk mail, and takes it to a neighborhood shredding event 2 or 3 times a year. She gets distressed if she misses it. She doesn't understand why I just toss it all away.
I've asked her why she thinks her junk mail address is so valuable, and she's afraid they will fall into the wrong hands. I've explained to her that if it's on junk mail, it's already out there being sold. It's just her name and address, it's a public record.
I get why she'd want to shred stuff with her SS# on it, but another AARP solicitation?
I just gather it throughout the year and burn it in winter. Atleast i get some value from all the junk mail.
I had a close friend with a super long ranch home, with a big open basement under the entire thing. He collected old phone books from all of his friends and anywhere he could get them, and stacked up at the end, and we would target shoot pellet guns and .22s into them. They made a perfect backstop for light gauges like that.
He was also a jeweler, and had his jewelery bench down there, so I would hang out and keep him company while he worked, and I put in a LOT of shooting hours. Became a pretty good shot.
It doesn’t get much more American than a phone book hoarder’s indoor shooting range!
Be a good child now and buy your mom a shredder
She's got one, but she thinks the trucks will shred better, and the shreds wont be in her trash where people will know where they came from.
I should note that my mother lives in a gated, active adult community, and there is literally ZERO crime in her neighborhood. If someone started going through someone else's trash, you'd have a half a dozen busybodies demanding to know what you're up to.
wait lol, if she thinks her address is so valuable for strangers to steal, wouldn't that make tossing it somewhere other than home more risky? Not that there's much thought going into this routine.
You have shredder trucks going through your neighbourhoods like mendicant tinkers??
3 big trucks, and three lanes of cars, pull up, pop the trunk, guy takes out the boxes and bags from the back and tosses them into bins, that are later emptied into the trucks, and you drive away.
And trust they really do pulp your papers without sifting through for the good stuff.
What even is this? Who is providing this service in the first place? This is weird, right? It's not just me?
The Yellow and White Pages were a private business, and they sold the listings in the Yellow Pages, and also sold upgraded listings in the White Pages. Residential listings were free.
Then they'd drive around and drop them on peoples' front steps. I knew people that made extra cash at Phone Book Delivery Season.
There were also competing Yellow Pages by upstart companies, especially smaller local Yellow Pages. You might have the big giant book that was the whole city/county, and then have a smaller set for just your suburb. A small local business might spring for an decent ad in the local Yellow Pages, and just put a simple listing on the big one.
I think you lost the thread
I'm in the habit of shredding everything.
a) It's so fun to watch a stack of mailers turn into confetti
b) Deniability. If I only shred important documents, then all my shredded trash is now important. If I shred everything, nobody knows how much of it is important.
Mostly A though. I'm not yet worried about someone trying to reconstruct my shredded trash.
Very paranoid. I like it.
The yellow one was for businesses. Residential phone numbers and often addresses where in the white book.
All of this could've been avoided had Sarah asked her roommate to get phone line in her name.
Yes the terminator would have reached the end of the list and gone "Whelp, guess the humans outsmarted us again!" And just give up on the spot. Terminator are known for giving up at the slightest setback.
Exactly!
Samsonite! I was close.
(I know I know wrong movie, but it is another phone book scene at least)
load more comments
(1 replies)
In smaller areas they'd make the yellow book and white book the same book to save on binding and distribution. I remember back in the very early 2000's my rural county still got the 400+ page yellow pages delivered every year.
load more comments
(1 replies)
load more comments
(9 replies)
You were asked if you wanted to be listed or not.
Depends on the country.
In Australia you had to pay an extra fee to not be placed on there. Fuck you Telstra.
Ditto in US. It was at least an opt out thing and referred to as getting an "unlisted number", I can't recall if there was a charge to do it.
I've never heard an Aussie say anything positive about Telstra.
load more comments
(1 replies)
Yes, but even then it was generally only true for the remaining fixed landline phones. Felt just like a public knowledge part of your address, like putting your name on the doorbell button.
To be generally valid for mobile phones you probably would have to go back another 10 years.
Those truely were different times still, also online.
I even remember posting my mail address to a public register at the end of the 90s to distribute the public part of my pgp key...
The reach of a printed phone book is obviously very limited, if compared to the globally accessibility of online data.
load more comments
(2 replies)
view more: next ›