It’s taken years to work this out, but there is a subtle art to designing an airport lounge. 1) Install power sockets and add useful tables and comfortable chairs… 2) make sure these three items are never located in the same place. You can sit comfortably, use a laptop or even charge it — but do not attempt more than one of these at the same time. In this way, almost all the gains made in information technology are being eroded by the uselessness of furniture designers and the mean-spiritedness of the people who design public spaces.
When I first installed a computer at home, I had something called ISDN which was only available from a socket in my second bedroom, so I set up a properly ergonomic desk and chair in the room, added a large screen, a proper keyboard and a mouse, and saw that it was good. Then WiFi came along and, finding that I could no longer be bothered to sit in the bedroom, I switched to using a laptop downstairs. This was generally smaller than the desktop and needed to be precariously balanced on the arm of a chair. Then, when I couldn’t be bothered to sit up straight any more, I bought a tablet. Tablets are basically a crappier version of the laptop without a proper keyboard, but you can use it on a sofa while adopting the position of the 12th man in an Edwardian cricket photograph — progress of a kind, I suppose.
Now my children find tablets too exerting, since they require two hands, so they interact with the world’s greatest ever repository of knowledge using pathetic little phones. Finally, since actually holding something in your hand is clearly too much effort, the latest development in portable tech is a bloody watch.
Comments
Join the debate for just £1 a month
Be part of the conversation with other Spectator readers by getting your first three months for £3.
UNLOCK ACCESS Just £1 a monthAlready a subscriber? Log in