Friday, October 29, 2010

When is paper gone?

I just stumbled over this photo, and the thought struck me: when and who will be the first generation growing up for whom paper and paper-books are unusual and foreign objects? Those born in ten years? Twenty? Thirty? I'm putting a hunnert bucks on twenty, though I wouldn't be terribly surprised if even ten is a good bet.


It's funny how it's a scary thought to us that something which is so intimately familiar to us might one day no longer be around very much. Quite irrational, but very real. The reality combined with the irrationality makes many people substitute anger for fear and attack with angry claims that of course that is impossible, can never happen!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Funny! When will all art except for that on your screen be gone? And sculpture?

Eolake Stobblehouse said...

Good point, but I'm not talking in absolutes here. I'm sure there will be *some* use of paper for a long time yet.
(And few sculptures are made of paper.)