Where Will Superman Change Now?

I saw a CNN feature on phone booths in Manhattan. It turns out that there are only four old-fashioned outdoor phone booths – the kind where Clark enters and out comes Superman, the ones with accordion doors, which you can shut to have privacy and silence, and often with phone books inside – left working right now.

Most public pay phones (the few of them left) have been replaced with open-booths -- those which have narrow panels on each side and no door to lock. These are easier to maintain, takes up less space, and costs less. It has also taken away the privacy of the caller and the opportunity to talk in silence.

There are of course many other pay phones in Manhattan, but they are indoors, such as in apartment buildings and condominiums. Some may keep them because they think these are still of importance, and some may have them installed to get away with maintaining a more costly private in-house phone line.

Questions now are no longer what type of phone booth to erect, but rather what do we need phone booths for. Emergencies maybe. Unforeseen circumstances perhaps. But with the proliferation of other technological means, its use and importance dwindles.

We have cell phones anyway which we can take anywhere we go plus the convenience minus the bulk. After all, if you really want to talk in private and with little noise, you can always bring your handy, portable little cell phone with you to your room at home, or to a quiet corner, or even to a bathroom stall.