As I was walking down the main corridor of a large state office building, something off to the side caught my eye. This is something that, in the past, one could find on nearly every block of any city and in nearly every larger building. However, in recent years, this thing has become virtually extinct. If you were to ask a young child about this thing, he or she might not know what you are talking about. At a minimum, they might think this thing is something to be found in a museum - for display and not function.
The thing that caught my eye was a pay phone. I got to thinking how easy it is to contact virtually anyone by e-mail or cell-phone or that wonderful hybrid, text messaging. While the number of contacts seem to to up, the quality seems to go down. In the days of pay phones, one had to make the effort to have somebody's telephone number. One had to make sure they had some change to pay for the call. In short, one had to have the desire and willingness to put forth some effort to call someone. Technology has eliminated the requirements of desire and effort. The results? Telemarketing and e-mail spam.
Bring back pay phones!
No comments:
Post a Comment