Phone books are not an antique to me by any means. I remember having to look in the phone book to find a number to order a pizza when I was younger or look up a neighbor’s phone number for my mom, so it’s not like they have been excluded from my life. I’m young, but I’m not that young.

In this newsroom, phone books create a strict divide between those who use them religiously and those — like me — who have probably picked one up less than a handful of times in the past decade.

I have nothing against phone books, especially at work. They are collections of information ripe with names and numbers, nothing is better — except for the Internet, which I’m more familiar with.

I have never once found information in the phone book that I couldn’t find online, thanks to the online version of the white pages. And often the numbers that I have tried to call from the rare times I’ve picked up a phone book have led me to hearing that pesky voice saying, “I’m sorry, but this number has been disconnected.”

As you can probably guess, the phone book divide also corresponds with age.

It’s personal preference influenced by generational overtones — that also provides for a good laugh at work.

I probably get told once a week to look up something in the phone book. After several conversations about why or why not to use one, we all just laugh knowing exactly what we are each going to choose to use.

I have never much reflected on how far we as a society have come in the information sharing age, but these phone books conversations combined with copying Old Post Files that announce someone went on vacation or to visit a family member have caused me to reflect on how social media sites like Facebook have taken away some of the need for hard copy.

As a 20-something, a phone book is no help when trying to call a friend because none of them have landlines. I also would not mail anything to anyone whose address I don’t already have.

But you can find someone you graduated with 40 years ago that lives on the other side of the county in just a few clicks via Facebook.

That being said, the Internet can only take you so far. In favor of the far-reaching berth of the Internet, the hyper local is often hard to come by.

That’s when the hard copy often — or a website associated with a print copy (shameless plug) — steps in, providing information about what’s happening down the street or in your friend’s neighborhood.

Now, printing in the paper who is staying in the hospital like we often see in Old Post Files is obsolete (and often illegal). Facebook will alert whoever needs to know.

But where can you get information about a reported house fire on Cherry Street? Information like that often slips through the cracks of the Internet unless a community has a newspaper and associated website (another shameless plug).

It’s the information that I believe is the most important to tell because it’s the hardest to come by.

Communication has changed undoubtedly. But some things — like the need for local news — remain the same.

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Sarah Mahan is a staff writer for The Vicksburg Post. You may reach her at sarah.mahan@vicksburgpost.com. Readers are invited to submit their opinions for publication.