Your first CD is as unforgettable as your first kiss: the philosophy of everyday objects
In 1963, when the author set off to school for the first time, a rag to clean his slate dangling from his backpack, calculations were still done using a pencil and slide rule and everyone listened to music on the radio or LPs. Only 14 percent of the West German population had a telephone – and the author’s family was not among them, nor did they have a television at home or even a typewriter. Today, almost every member of the average family over the age of 12 owns a cell phone or tablet that can be used to make phone calls, take photographs, write, google, chat, stream and e-mail. Preisendörfer reviews the rapid changes his personal every-day life has undergone in just a few decades – sometimes with a touch of nostalgia and sometimes with wonder, but always with curiosity and the awareness that, before too long, every future will also have its past.
With a sharp eye and stylistic finesse, the author also takes a closer look at what effect the respective cultural technologies have on their users and their social environment. Life is different when the whole family gathers together in front of the television set than when each person has a tablet; listening to music on LPs is not the same as streaming it; and when everyone has a cell phone, there’s no more bitter arguing about who gets to use the only phone.
