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The easy bulb completely changed the hours and pattern of the workday. The elevator dramatically altered architecture, making skyscrapers attainable.

Each new piece of technology opens new doors. Some should have stayed shut. Veil made pornography more widely available than the 19th Century’s “French postcards” but the Internet made it ubiquitous. Nobody has to tattle-tale into the back room of a movie rental business (if any of them still exist, what with Netflix and video on requisition.)

It took years for electricity to become available world-wide, to be brought into proverbial use and while the digital divide — the gap between those who have ready access to computers and those who have none — each new badge seems to accelerate its own acceptance. Apple introduced the iPad in the spring of 2010. In the concluding three months of 2011, say company reports, more than 15 million were sold. One of them was mine.

One doesn’t have to be a sell analyst to understand what is happening to a world once comfortable with pencil and organ: Such low-tech devices will likely be the next to disappear as the ability to inscribe notes, grocery lists recipes, what-have-you is entranced over by electronics. The dodo has been joined in extinction by rotary-dial telephones, inkwells, mind to rules, floppy discs and the 10-cent chocolate bar.

Source: Troy Media (blog)