On the slip side, keyless entry has resulted in quite...sturdy, rounded remotes.
Isn't there a general poverty of tactility?... as Berardi would say 'smooth hairless generation'? I seem to remember, somewhat dimly, as if recalling the distracting content from a pop-up advert, Air talking about the obvious heteronormative sexual allegory of analogue hardware. Jacks and plugs etc. But such technologies are fading... the absence of the analogue jack on the new iPhone being a case in point.
The technology of yesteryear really lent itself well to sexual metaphor (albeit from a hetero macho paradigm). Of course, penetration is not necessary for sex, but today it is difficult to find contemporary props for such allusions. It must be hard to make a wifi spot erotic, or pose a metaphor through touchscreen. I think this part of why writing sex well today is so difficult, because other than graphic descriptors the metaphorical options are inevitably dated and cliched now. People touch things less. Paper coffee cups, wireless charging, keyless entry.. are these part of the same symptomatic continuum as
Celibacy Syndrome or
Hikikomori?
I think this is why ASMR (youtube it) is so telling.. because, although highly fetishized and based largely on tertiary service interaction, it panders to a
virtual experience of tactility... evoked through the sensual surrogates of high-definition audio and visuals.
Take the London Tube, that subterranean morass of literary cliches - most peoples' engagement with that is one of swiftly swiped hygienic a-tactility (the Oyster card) as opposed to the suck'n'shoot protocol of the ticket turnstile.