Celebrating the Red telephone box

The Design Museum in London has recently announced the acquisition of two new exhibits to coincide with the launch of their latest exhibition entitled “This is Design” which runs until January next year. A set of traffic lights and the red telephone box join other iconic design classics such as the angle poise lamp and the candlestick telephone.

Celebrating its 75th anniversary this year, the red telephone box is a fast disappearing facet of British Life. Whilst inventive communities have been preserving their telephone boxes by turning them into libraries or even mini pubs, other telephone boxes have been sold off and converted into shower cubicles or as play homes.

The sad fact is that the red telephone box may be an icon but is so little used that it will in time go the way of the mangle or the butter churn; learnt about as a historical curiosity and thought of with a twinge of nostalgia. Roaring in to replace the phone box, the smart phone is now used by 27% of adults and 47% of teenagers according to a recent Ofcom report. At work we may be converting to internet telephony, or VoIP, but at home the smart phone rules.

This virtual addiction to smart phones is also changing the way we conduct our lives according t the Ofcom report. 81% of users have the phone switched on even when in bed with around 40% admitting to answering the phone if it rings in the night. Slightly more strangely 22% of adults and 47% of teenagers also admitted to using their smart phones whilst in the bathroom or toilet.

Our work/life balance is also changing. Although 30% of users admitted to making or receiving personal calls whilst in the office, 24% admitted regularly using their smart phones to take work calls when on holiday. The mix of smart phone and VoIP technology means that calls are moving to the internet at an ever faster rate. Within the office, combining VoIP with virtual switchboards has enabled even the small business to provide a premium telephone service for comparatively little cost. Add in features such as local telephone numbers and call transfer and even a one man band can save costs whilst staying in touch.

Seventy five years ago the telephone box was a revolution in itself, enabling people to communicate without having the cost of a telephone in their own home, or when away from home. With the pace of change ever increasing we do wonder what is waiting to replace the smart phone and how long it will be before it too takes its place in the Design Museum.