the poetry of technology

I found this Hugo Williams poem I blogged a long while back:

I phoned from time to time, to see if she's
changed the music on her answerphone.
'Tell me in two words,' goes the recording,
'what you were going to tell in a thousand.' 

I peer into that thought, like peering out
to sea at night, hearing the sound of
waves breaking on the rocks, knowing she
is there, listening, waiting for me to speak. 

Once in a while she'll pick up the phone
and her voice sings to me out of the past.
The hair on the back of my neck stands up
as I catch her smell for a second.

at the time I wrote how I loved that message she used. but now I'm struck what a beautiful, poetic, dramatic technology we had for... what, 20-30 years? From 1975 to 2005? The idea of screening calls live, the plaintive "if you're there, pick up... please pick up"... we've lost that! Arguably though it's part of the whole trend away from voice...