mobile technology

Just a quick post - I saw an article in today's Guardian by Stuart Jeffries on how 'the world is becoming a poorer place' thanks to the mobile phone. No, Stuart - it's just becoming a different place. he laments the demise of, for example, the wristwatch, now we all have phones and don't need them any more. Well, speaking as someone who's reached the age of 56 and never worn a wristwatch, I find the clock on my mobile, yes, a useful piece of technology, but not really a substitute for the clock in my car, all the public clocks in town that I've always used, the radio at home, my kitchen clock, the clock on my computer, and the clock at work etc. etc.. We're surrounded by clocks - why on earth would I ever need one attached to me. I suppose if I lived in the country.........but I don't.
He also talks about confusing developments in technology - how kids now hold mobiles up in trains when playing music so others can hear them, contradicting what was always the point of the personal stereo, to hear music privately. To me it just illustrates people's unfailing inventiveness, their refusal to do what the marketplace tells them, and above all, the inexorable law, one ofthe greatest and most profound, that of unintended consequences.

He also talks about his nostalgia for the old-fashioned typewriter. Well, as someone who never mastered the typewriter, I've learned to type pretty fast and accurately on the PC. I'm completely self-taught and needed no expensive training of the type which was essential in the old days. We had a Secretarial Sixth Form at my school, where people could stay on for a year instead of doing A Levels, doing nothing but training to be secretaries. Not needed now - we can do it ourselves. That's got to be progress.

People will always use technological innovation in ways that are useful to them and these are often ways that were not what the inventors, manufacturers and marketing executives had in mind. And there are plenty that fall by the wayside, and I suspect that many of the gadgets on sale now will fall by the wayside, unused and unloved, indeed, many have already. Laserdisc, anyone?