[frazerb]

As a teenager I would spend hours talking to my girlfriend using the payphone that was across the street from my house. Why ? Just to avoid the hyper-sensitive ears of my parents. Those things were an essential part of my life!

That girl became my wife, and now we have a seven-year-old son. Unlike me, he will probably never use one of these. Ever. He'll never have the joy of standing in the rain/cold/wind chatting to his girlfriend from a payphone.

And to that point, I conjecture that he will never have a POTS wired phoneline in his own home, he will never buy a newspaper, and perhaps he will never buy a CD, DVD or petrol-only vehicle.

What do you think ?

[retube]

This reminds of the ipad ads that have gone up recently in London. They feature a book, with authentic-looking "pages" that you can turn.

I fully expect children in 10 years to be wondering what the hell this graphic/effect is supposed to represent.

[edanm]

So you're saying that in 10 years, there will be no more books in the world?

Even if everyone starts using computers/ipads/whatever to read books, I doubt that all the books in the world would disappear so quickly. I think it will take closer to 50 years.

[Yaggo]

Interesting. My child is 1.5 years old and perhaps she will never buy any vehicle. "Dad, people actually owned these 20 years ago?" Another example: so far, she has never seen a photo album, but can browse photos on my iPhone.

[stretchwithme]

why would she never buy a vehicle?

[Yaggo]

Oh. Because things like public transport and City Car Club will take over.

[thisduck]

He'll never have the joy of standing in the rain/cold/wind chatting to his girlfriend from a payphone.

He will have other joys. Joys that perhaps you will never have.

[stretchwithme]

he'll never have an answering machine either. nor did we when I was a kid. I seem to recall the phone just ringing and ringing and you had to call back again and again to reach someone. and you never knew who was calling when you picked up the phone