A puzzling 1941 photo of a boy with an ‘iPad’ has convinced some people that time travel exists

The future is probably too bleak for internet sleuths who happen to be zooming into the past to uncover mysterious happenings. For instance, a new vintage photo has emerged that shows a young boy from 1941 holding, what seems like, an iPad. As absurd as it may sound, the photo is going viral across social media platforms sparking debates about its authenticity. While there is no question about it– the iPad was launched in 2010–Reddit users love themselves a good fictitious story. A viral post by Reddit user u/Slow-moving-sloth was reshared by u/bagelshmear2 and shows a black and white photo of a group of kids waiting in line to enter a movie theatre in the south side of Chicago. 

While it is a rather interesting sight, with the kids dressed elegantly in suits and dresses, complete with hats, reminiscent of the era, internet users were more concerned about a boy clutching onto an iPad, as it appeared. “iPad carrying movie goer, all the way to the right,” the post stated. The first boy in the line, dressed in a grey suit had a black pad with a shiny logo on it. This is what caught the attention of people theorizing if it was the “iconic Apple logo.” One person (u/Unlikely_Bit_6473) wrote, “If you zoom right in close, that is too big to be a 'book' or 'notepad' plus you can see what looks like the iconic Apple logo on the back of it.” 

However, most comments disagreed with any claims of the object being an iPad. “Ain’t no way in the world anyone black would travel back to 1941. Wasn’t exactly a 'good time' for us,” quipped a netizen (u/DebtEastern). Similarly, another user (u/Rare-Dragonfruit1131) pointed out, “Not going to be much use no internet then!” Most of the Reddit users were convinced that it was a black book that the boy had with himself. Someone else (u/WinterCloud2290) claimed, “It's most likely The Holy Bible. They have their Sunday best on, bless their wee souls. Yes, I definitely think that's what it is.” One of the comments took another direction, as a Reddit user (u/Jakaz_mustang66) said, “Girl in the white hat looks like she has a bottle of water?”

Originally, the photo was clicked in the South Side of Chicago in 1941 by photographer Edwin Rosskam, as insinuated in the original Reddit post by u/Slow-moving-sloth. Speaking of the iPad rumors, it is general knowledge that Apple did not launch its iPad series until early 2010. Whereas, the water bottle, as pointed out by another Reddit user, did not get a spot in households until 1973, per The Sentry. 

Now, time travel has become a rather discussed subject but with little specificity. People love the idea of time travel, as long as it is shown in a simplified and ‘cooler’ version in Hollywood movies. But very few would love to understand physicist Albert Einstein’s theory of special relativity, which attempts to explain the possibility of time travel, only not in a way most would have imagined, per a Space report. Einstein’s theory suggests that the flow of time is not constant and is rather influenced by speed. Therefore, time travel could only be possible if humans could travel at the speed of light to be able to travel into the future, not the past.