Nonfiction Response // No More Pay Phones?

According to the article No More Pay Phones? by the Upfront Magazine, today there are about 48,000 phone booths left, from the 92,000 at their peak in 2002, and only about 10,000 are still in London. Iconic traits like this, in my opinion, should never be removed. They make up a cities characteristics, and that makes a huge impact on the society. Imagine removing the apple logo from New York City or the golden Gate Bridge from San Francisco. The red phone booth is a part of the culture and history of the UK, and should therefore never be removed.

Every city has its own unique "traits", whether its a landmark, and accent, o a street, there is always one in every city. The United Kingdom, for example, has its iconic red telephone boxes, which are a common representation of the UK. But, with the advancements in technology, cellphones and other communication devices are making the pay phone use plummet by 80%.

In the article No More Pay Phones?, the author states that people are using the pay phones less and less, which is a major cause of their downfall. The advancement in technology always comes with a price, and in this case, the price we have to pay is the loss of the iconic phone booth. Its use is very much for memory and not as much for actually calling people, because now most people own cellphones as they come in all shapes and sizes and can even be personally customized to fit your needs. The phone booth, on the other hand, is purely there for those times when your phone ran out of battery, or some other rare disaster. So people have been recycling the pay phones to keep their power alive. There have been notices of the pay phones being turned into mini-librairies, couches, art galleries, and ATM's.

The red phone booth is a major example of people forgetting their history, and we need to keep this memory alive to be able to remember the past. A photo may be word a 1,000 words, but an experience is worth one million. Even though phone booths are becoming out of date, they have a unique power different from the modern day cellphones, as they are relics of the past, and need to be protected. We aren't going to demolish historical buildings just because they are going out of date, so why should we get rid of the phone booth? we need to protect our history. as it makes us the people we are now.