Hang up the mobile phone, everyone, the 1900s are here

It turns out me and The Teenager are unwittingly bang on trend. New research shows disposable cameras are making a comeback, with Fujifilm expecting to sell 7.5 million cameras this financial year – up from 3.9 million in 2014-15 – as young people tire of selfies.

This news made me very happy, as it follows my oft-voiced opinions that CDs would never catch on (hello, vinyl revolution), ditto the internet (revolution pending).

For years now, whilst not being able to separate The Teenager from her mobile, I have enjoyed being able to persuade her, once a year, to buy a disposable camera as an “extra” for the summer.

This started as an exercise in humouring the Luddite parent and soon became a passion. The thrill of sending a film off to be developed at the end of summer, when you can’t really remember what was on it, was a revelation for someone used to the instant results of phones or digital cameras.

This passion gradually grew and she now has a collection of vintage cameras, with some impressive black and white prints as a result. I think she enjoys the challenge of having to get it right when you take a snap, with none of the options for cropping and lightening instantly available with a phone. Obviously, she is still glued to her phone the rest of the time.

All this camera nostalgia makes me hopeful that young people will soon realise what else they have been missing out on and embrace the typewriter as their writing tool of choice. It may not be as practical as a laptop, particularly when it comes to emailing the content, but it will be worth it.

I look forward to the return of the happy days of clickety-clackety instead of random bleeping when writing. I fully expect myself to be at the forefront of another trend when everyone else catches on to the old satisfaction of using carbon paper for copies and the satisfying “ping” at the end of the line of type.