The incredible shrinking act
How the internet freed up storage space in our homes
In the 1985 movie, Back to the Future, if Marty McFly had gone forward in time to 2020 instead of backwards to 1955, one of the first things he’d have noticed was the absence of stuff and clutter in homes.
In the living room, for example, where were the bulky TV set, the VCR (Video Cassette Recorder) and the messy cable spaghetti linking them all? What happened to the multi-deck stereo system with turntable, radio and speakers the size of carry-on luggage? Or the shelves overflowing with cassettes, records and magazines?
Upstairs, the bedrooms would be equally spartan, with only a few books lying around. And in the study, none of the boxes, files and drawers that would normally be crammed with years’ worth of photos, bills and bank statements.
So where was all the stuff?! Did people not read anymore? Did they no longer cherish their memories in photo albums? Did they not listen to music anymore, or watch TV?
Marty McFly would, of course, soon learn that all of these separate consumer technologies have been replaced by a single device: a laptop, a tablet or a smartphone. And the paper we accumulated on a daily basis has all but disappeared, and now sits digitally on our computers or in the cloud.
This incredible shrinking act has virtually eliminated the huge amount of storage space that we required before the internet – easily the equivalent of a whole bedroom. And if you think that’s an exaggeration, then you’re probably a digital native for whom paper in the home is something usually associated with a bodily function.
This doesn’t mean that we now live in smaller homes, only that we have more living space – unless, of course, you’re an inveterate hoarder for whom Parkinson’s Law applies, namely that stuff and clutter expand to fill the available storage space.
So, next time you look around you and think that you could do with a bigger living room or bedroom, just remember that you’ve got at least 20% more space than your parents and grandparents had for the same volume. And that’s all thanks to the internet.
Michael Gentle is the author of Life Before the Internet, a fascinating look back at a slower, simpler time, when Amazon was just a river. For similar articles, click here.
Image from Freepik