END OF LAND-LINE PHONES LAMENTED

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Who will lament the end of the traditional land-line phone? Shall we have a party?

Ah, change. It’s happening right now. If all forecasts and prognostications and iPhone sales figures are to be believed, the land-line phone, this ancient device of your parents’ fondest memories, is going the way of the eight-track and the cassette, the pull-tab and the teletype, the floppy disk and VHS and sad little girls named Edna Lou.

Perhaps you already know. Perhaps you’re already one of the converts. Perhaps you have no idea what the hell I’m talking about because you’re about 22 and have used a cute pink Nokia since you were 4 and got your first domain name at 10 and you can’t even spell Led Zeppelin properly, in which case I’m not sure I can speak to you ever again. Sorry.

My mental gyrations are, of course, irrelevant. There is no real justification for the cost of two phone numbers and multiple handsets anymore. The next wave is here. Wireless is the new e-mail. Which was the new fax. Which was the new teletype. Which was the new snail mail. Which was the new Morse code. Which was the new Pony Express. Which was the new cave drawing. Which was the new voice of God in your prehistoric head. Which really isn’t all that different than a call on a Bluetooth headset. Full circle, really.

Another transition. Another tech wave, another soon-to-be-obsolete technology that once was king and is now relegated to cultural curiosity, niche product, footnote.

Make a note of it? Mark your calendar so you can look back someday and say you were there when it happened? Raise a toast and yank the cord and pray your next call doesn’t fizzle and drop out just over that next hill? Why not?

To read the full article by Mark Morford: The Great Untethering