The other day my wife was in the park with our two daughters. On the way back home, they happened to walk by just as some men were lifting a telephone booth on to the back of their truck . Curious as kids are, our eldest daughter asked about the object that the men were taking away . My wife proceeded to explain that only a short time ago mobile phones were not available and that phones used to be of the fixed type. You could not take your phone with you wherever you went. We all learned from the news the next day that the men were taking away the very last phone booth in Helsinki.

I’m not sure if a four year old can actually grasp the concept of a phone that is not mobile. I don’t think she even gave the whole thing much thought but it certainly had an impact on me. I actually think it was somehow the last missing part in a puzzle that I’ve been trying to figure out for some time now.I am part of the last generation that remembers a time when digital was not a part of our everyday life. I really don’t remember too much about life before digital but I clearly do remember trying to stay awake in history class. Someone somewhere had decided that it was important to remember the who and when of the Swedish monarchy. To make it extra hard I seem to recall that all of the kings were named either Karl or Gustaf (or both).

Our education system is not of the most agile kind so I’m guessing that our daughters will have to sit in history class just like I did. They will have to try to stay awake while the teacher tries to get them to remember the who and when of important events like the reign of the fixed line telephone. But for some future generation education will not be about learning mundane facts when the power of digital provides us with the means to access any piece of information at any time.

If digital can challenge the traditions of education I can only wonder what It will do to the other parts of life that we are so accustomed to. And that is the puzzle I have been trying to figure out. From where I’m standing it looks very much that digital will not only take us forward, it will also take us back to where we came from.

A cave.

Read the second part of this post here.