I was surprised how much of a shock it really was. Let me explain. For most of my life I have been a customer of AT&T or one of their many subsidiaries. Mind you, there weren't that many other telephone companies out there. So, by default, unless you were bound and determined to communicate some other way - you were handled by AT&T - in the main. As such, You could count on, without fail, that "the" telephone company would handle getting you a new paper residential telephone directory and yellow pages to you in a plastic bag, if you lived in a house, or, as in the case of my building, there's just a honking great pile in the lobby with the annual delivery. This was an event that marked the years. A new telephone directory was like someone pushed the "refresh" button, and you got the new directory with all the new community changes in your hands.
O.K., O.K. A paper directory is a dinosaur for many people. However, it can actually be more convenient to whip out the book to look up a phone number or address - than having to boot up the computer or locate your multi-tasking phone. It's recycleable, usually stays in the same place, and it gives its listings a feeling of permanence simply by the weight that rests in your hands. There have been pretenders and competitors to the paper telephone directory throne over the years. Usually, without fail, the AT&T directory listed the latest information. You could count on them to be super efficient. The throne pretenders were usually working off of old information.
Well, with all the so-called progress in the electronic media market in the last few years. Especially after 9/11/01 knocked out our usual form of broadcast media for television - telephone companies decided to get into the computer and television market and, the cable providers followed suit. Or vica versa. At any rate, many of us have been forced to purchase these bundled services if we want to a) stay in touch by talking; b) watch the latest television shows or Pay-Per-View packages (like in hotels for blue movies!); and c) surf, research, etc. the internet, text the entire world or expose one's pecadillos for the entire electronic world to see - in the name of social networking. You no longer can have a simple land line to call folks or 911. You no longer can have the basic broadcast channels on your tv. And if you want a connection to the internet - then you have to have one that handles everything.
These improvements are all market driven. They've brought a level of communication available to the general public to unprecedented heights. It's wonderful. It can also cost you and arm-and-a-leg. We are stuck with all these new parameters.
To get back to the erasure of me....because AT&T wanted to charge a bundle of money for their bundle. I found I could keep basic television, and buy the rest of cable's bundle for about $25 less per month. This is very important as I am currently incomeless and rather media driven! So, I switched my telephone and internet to cable. I got a brand new telephone number. Hallelujah! My old one belonged to a deadbeat, and after 5 years, I was still getting collection agency calls. The new number with cable, yes, it did belong to someone else, but fortunately, I've only received two calls for its former owner.
So - now that I have a new telephone number from my cable company, my friends and family are unable to look up my current telephone on the internet (which can be a blessing). But what is most heinous (sp?) to me, is that AT&T has erased me from their new 2010 telephone directory. It made me feel like I was living in the Twilight Zone, or that a science-fiction novel had come to life on me! On the one hand, anything you put on the internet is there for all eternity. But to go to an old friend - my new annual telephone book - and find that I no longer exist, is rather unnerving. In the past, I believe, even if you weren't a direct customer, you and your listing showed up in the phone book. No more! If you are not a customer, you are dead to them!
The competitor's phone book still has me and my old phone number. And my cable company? They don't bother with a telephone directory. 'Course it's now becoming apparent - if you call a number not handled by your telephone company - you will probably be told that "there is no such number." I guess the various telephone providers don't talk to each other. It doesn't work in the spirit of economic competition. Mind you, it would be extremely beneficial in a emergency. Let's hope we don't have one.
