So, where are we going then?

I remember, at the tender age 0f 13, getting ready to go on a date with a girl at my local bowling alley. Not that local, I should add, my parents had to drive me there on a 40 minute round trip. God bless their souls, they waited outside as I tip toed in, more than a little nervous with hair freshly coated in far too much wet-look gel. The girl wasn’t there. Nor was she after 1o minutes. I had been stood up.

Of course I had no mobile phone. Not many people did in those days. If someone wasn’t there, what did you do? Wait? Leave? It’s scary to think how we all survived, imagine having to be always on time….

Anyway, so imagine printing off a map of a place you want before leaving the house, researching online for the best pubs in a certain area, arguing with your friends, and then trying to find which restaraunt to vist when wandering through an unfamiliar neighbourhood. A scenario we all recognise and a scenario that will be as alien to us by the end of 2009 as those memories of anxiously waiting outside McDonalds at 4pm on a Saturday afternoon for your friends to arrive without any possibility of getting in touch with them.

‘How did we survive?’ Those of you with an I-Phone, or G1 or one of the many other smart phones  impregnating the market may already be thinking this. But we have only scraped the surface. Personalised directions in your palm is one thing, but a compelte directory of every commercial outlet, reviews of each, special offers, level of busyness, cost, booking capability, whether your friends are there, and many many more I can not even begin to contemplate is quite another.

Exciting, isn’t it.