The Telegraph, The Typewriter and the Answering Machine

Obsolescence. The more quickly new gadgets become available, the more quickly older ones fall by the wayside.

Phone booths, and public telephones in general, are rare, if they still exist at all. Most people today carry a cellphone¹ or, more likely, a smartphone. They have no need of a wired telephone. And since these public telephones are expensive to maintain (and somewhat prone to vandalism) they are being removed.

As GPS devices become ubiquitous, folks have less need of road signs that identify street names. So you can expect to see less of them, too. No, they won't be removed the way pay phones are. But they'll fail to be replaced. They will disappear first along the old, smaller roads that only local drivers are likely to drive on, and that have been subjected to construction. It's probably the current norm in Massachusetts to leave out street signs -- at least that's how it seemed while I attempted to drive to the Great East Festival in May². In fact it was this trip that compelled me to buy a GPS³ -- something I swore I'd never do.

When we discovered that our answering machine was broken recently, I came up with my latest prediction for obsolescence -- the hanky. No, just kidding. I mean the answering machine, of course. Those same folks who sport cellphones are deciding to eliminate their land line phone service. And the fewer folks that have a land line, the fewer that need a telephone and answering machine. But of the two, the answering machine is more dispensable because you can subscribe to your telephone provider's answering service, which you need a telephone to use.

The answering machine that broke was one I bought in 1992. Back then I chose a model that used ordinary audio cassette tapes. That was because someone in the store pointed out that the cassette tape feature would be handy in the event someone were to dictate directions over the phone. I'd be able to just set the answering machine to record the directions, and then take the tape with me in the car and play it back on the car stereo as I drove. Considering how it was the cassette tape mechanism that broke, and that I never played back recordings in the car, perhaps it wasn't the best advice. On the other hand, I still have the first message that my wife left for me just before our very first date.

You can still find answering machines, of course, but the selection isn't what it was 18 years ago. There seem to be few standalone units, and my brief search didn't turn up any that recorded onto tape (not that I wanted one like that). But if you're hoping to be able to find an answering machine in twenty years, well, let's just say you should buy a few extra units now and stash them away.

Then again, answering machines, street signs and even the odd pay phone might always be with us. After all, decades ago many people predicted that computers would bring about the demise of paper. But as we know, we are still drowning in the stuff, especially around election time.

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¹ Everyone except me, that is.
² It might've only seemed that way because I put off buying new eyeglasses and couldn't see the signs.
³ Also, we were planning to drive to Washington DC, and I wasn't going to force my wife to pretend to read a map. It actually was helpful, or at least better than having no clue about which direction to take. And in DC, you definitely don't want to wind up on certain roads appearing to be lost.