The Mobile Interface: Old Technologies and New Arguments

Abstract

It is nearly two decades since Marvin wrote When Old Technologies Were New (Marvin, 1988). In that text, Marvin explored whether the impact of electronic communications at the end of the nineteenth century (and thereafter) turned out to be as predicted. For those who have not looked at that book, they may be unsurprised to learn that Marvin discovered that the pundits got it wrong. Instead of predicting that the greatest changes would occur in what goes on in home settings — through radio and television for example — they focused their predictions on the impact that new technologies would have on mass spectacles in public spaces.