Rethinking the Shape of Everyday Life

A few weeks ago, a friend explained to her 8-year-old son that when she was his age, you could only make phone calls from those old-fashioned telephones at home, or phone booths on the street. “He was shocked,” she said. “Then he looked at me half-pityingly and half-contemptuously as though I was some sort of decrepit dinosaur.”

Lots of once familiar objects and habits must now seem equally prehistoric — to 8-year-olds, at least. Paying by check. Listening to music on CDs. Videoing TV shows. Planning a journey with a road atlas. Calling a telephone helpline to check a train timetable or airline schedule. Being awoken by an alarm clock, and everything else that has been rendered redundant by digital technology.