Navin R. Johnson would be so disappointed.

“The new phone book’s here, the new phone book’s here! I’m somebody now.”

That’s what Johnson, played by Steve Martin in “The Jerk,” shouted when he madly paged through a phone book and found his name listed for the first time.

Last week the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission discussed a rule change that would let companies deliver residential phone directories electronically. Under the plan customers would only get a print phone book if they request one.

Although Martin’s film character was a naive bumpkin, there are likely quite a few people who recall looking up their own names when they got their first phone and first phone book listing. It may have made us a “somebody” who now was saddled with paying a monthly phone bill, but it was still a rite of passage for some — especially after “The Jerk” came out.

The annual arrival of the new phone book, which often featured a beautiful photograph of a local landmark or nature scene, was another way to explore a community. As population grows or shrinks, the thickness of the phone book would reflect the change. If you wanted to get a clue about the variety of people in the area, you could skim over the names and compare how many Andersons and Johnsons there were compared to Dominiguezes and Garcias. If you wanted to know whether your old neighbor was still alive, you could just look him up in the book.

Despite the nostalgia that may be associated with getting a new full-size phone book, the change to electronic listings makes practical as well as economic sense, saving paper as well as printing and delivery costs. Electronic directories are readily available on the Internet. And so many people have dropped their land lines because of cellphone use that they aren’t even in the book anymore.

The proposed rule change would still require companies to produce one directory a year. They’d also have to reach out to customers and make sure they wouldn’t miss a paper phone book before nixing the delivery. The new proposal is open for public comments and requests for hearings until Feb. 19.

Giving people the option of getting a print copy of the phone book is reasonable. And for the Navin R. Johnsons out there who want to page through the book rather than click a mouse, opening that phone book can still supply that sense of satisfaction that it used to.

 

Mankato Free Press, Jan. 26