[fian]

Due to my age and work experience, I'm also familiar with archiving involving storing physical documents in cardboard boxes. My current job really is paper free and graduate employees joining will never deal with archive boxes.

Similarly, the icons on my mobile for making a call, answering a call and hanging up are all based on the shape of the handset for a corded phone.

The Save button icon in many applications is based on a 3.5" floppy disk.

I sometimes need to save data as a PDF, which in many cases involves "printing" to PDF. The icon is based on a paper printer, but the action I am using it for doesn't include any external device or paper.

This makes me wonder about what icons we could use in the future where so many actions are done via a touch interface on a phone/tablet. There are less physical objects involved in common actions. So the skeuomorphic approach to icons for buttons is becoming less valid over time especially for younger people.

[Animats]

> what icons we could use in the future

All icons will depict a smartphone. At least for the short remaining period until you just tell the AI what you want.