Technology can be great, but sometimes it takes away a little piece of history. In last Friday's Guardian, Tim de Lisle told the story of the demise of the gig ticket, which is being slowly replaced by mobile barcodes.
How do we keep track of those little moments of our lives, he wondered:
Tickets are humble, democratic, unpretentious. And they do the job, twice over: afterwards, they transport you back to the show as efficiently as they got you into it in the first place. Memory needs only a jog and there's something magical about the way a clerical little item can conjure up a pulsating night.
So he's not likely to be pleased with the figures just published by mobile firm O2, who say they've sold more than £100,000 worth of "mobile tickets" for the upcoming Wireless Festival in London... basically bar codes texted to phones, and then shown to security to get you through the gates.
Here's the corporate speak:
"The success of O2's Mobi-tickets at the UK's first large-scale event demonstrates how music fans are truly embracing mobile as a means to enhance their overall festival experience," said Paul Samuels, the head of sponsorship at O2 UK.
The same is happening with train tickets - over the years I amassed a huge selection of tube and train tickets for various journeys, marking various important dates and happenings. Now, however, things like the RFID-driven Oyster card mean you simply lose the physical evidence of your journey.
But is this carping all just unneccessary sentimentality? Should we weclome our new technological overlords?
