cell phone nostalgia
The new gigantic sfMoMA has a fascinating (and in my opinion too small) design exhibit from the permanent collection tucked away on the (sixth?) floor. (Or at least they did when I started this post!) Maybe because it's San Francisco it's heavy on obsolete technologies each object displayed as though it's an artifact in a museum of anthropology and with an accompanying video showing it in use. Most of them I owned at one point and nostalgia hangs heavy around each corner. The exhibit (especially the Palm Pilot) made me dig out my own collection of "vintage" cell phones.
In our overly connected era, it's hard not to be nostalgic for a time when we were harder to reach and a little more free. Or were we? I remember the era before cell phones when you had to make a plan to meet up and stick to it. When a phone call was an event. Like going to the movies. Not something you did to distract yourself while walking from point a to b. Does the cell phone really make us more connected or is it the phone equivalent of email replacing letters? More frequent communications but less substantive.
“A few of the fellow-conferencers are in a room together. They are gathered around a special speakerphone that resembles the Star Trek insignia. I find this particularly egregious, because this plastic spaceship is pretending to be a cool invention when it’s really just a landline in a Halloween costume.”
A recent issue of the NewYorker asked people what they would uninvent and Carrie Brownstein wrote brilliantly about the conference call. Just because it's possible doesn't mean it's a good idea. In the end the cell phone is just another tool. Real communication is an art form possible (or absent) on any medium.
postscript:
Turns out there's a special nostalgia for Nokia's! Thanks for sending this D!
