Can't remember who penned this line in a song "Things change, there are always changes" But change seems to be happening at a far faster rate.
The UK's oldest Post Card maker (founded in the late 1800's) is to close in December. The owners cite (rather than blame) social media as the cause.
People take shorter holidays, use insta'this-that-and the other to share photographs or video immediately with family and friends. The thought of arriving home from your holiday before your postcard lands on the doorstep of the recipient is now laughable......and who uses a pen these days? I can't even remember how to hold one! I take my shots and they appear on Flickr or Facethingy.
It is sad, but it is unstoppable. The printing press started the revolution......albeit at a slow burn. Now, exponentially.... things move at a pace you can hardly keep up with.
He who first shortened the labor of copyists by device of movable types was disbanding hired armies, and cashiering most kings and senates, and creating a whole new democratic world: he had invented the art of printing (Thomas Carlyle, Sartor Resartus, 1833)
The Internet, the sharing of news (real or fake).......is it the cause or part of the cause of the current populist uprising? Considering the power wielded by Microsoft, Google, Amazon etc Is it democratic?
The demise of the post card maker is a small part of the story......a tiny dot of things to come. Where will we be in 2, 10, 20 or 50 years time? Taking photographs with our eye and editing them with our brain and transmitting them by thought waves via a chip embedded under the scalp?
The UK's oldest Post Card maker (founded in the late 1800's) is to close in December. The owners cite (rather than blame) social media as the cause.
People take shorter holidays, use insta'this-that-and the other to share photographs or video immediately with family and friends. The thought of arriving home from your holiday before your postcard lands on the doorstep of the recipient is now laughable......and who uses a pen these days? I can't even remember how to hold one! I take my shots and they appear on Flickr or Facethingy.
It is sad, but it is unstoppable. The printing press started the revolution......albeit at a slow burn. Now, exponentially.... things move at a pace you can hardly keep up with.
He who first shortened the labor of copyists by device of movable types was disbanding hired armies, and cashiering most kings and senates, and creating a whole new democratic world: he had invented the art of printing (Thomas Carlyle, Sartor Resartus, 1833)
The Internet, the sharing of news (real or fake).......is it the cause or part of the cause of the current populist uprising? Considering the power wielded by Microsoft, Google, Amazon etc Is it democratic?
The demise of the post card maker is a small part of the story......a tiny dot of things to come. Where will we be in 2, 10, 20 or 50 years time? Taking photographs with our eye and editing them with our brain and transmitting them by thought waves via a chip embedded under the scalp?