All That Space

We used to have shelves for books, media centers to hold DVDs and VHS tapes, towers for CDs, computer desks, TV stands, and phone books. Soon our books will be a Sony® Portable Reader System, our music will all be stored on a small hard drive, our computers will all be laptops or ultra-mobile PCs, and our TVs flat pannels hung from the wall.

In the case of getting rid of our encyclopedias in favor of Wikipedia, we are taking high-value residential square footage and "outsourcing" it to cheaper server-farm real estate in nowhereseville.

So what are we going to do with all that space? Will we live in smaller homes now that we don't need to keep the Yellow Pages handy? Will the real estate market crumble under the weight of the square footage glut caused by analog-free living?