Evolution of Technology | February 2015
This may date me (to some people) but I remember when you would look your best friend’s number up in the school directory to give them a call and then have one of their parents or siblings pick up. I also remember my first real computer class was in 3rd grade and we learned how to type with a game and a big cardboard box covering our keyboards so we couldn’t peek.
Technology has changed a lot since then. Now most houses with younger parents (say 30s or 40s) don’t have house phones. You learn how to type at an early age. You’re trusted with technology a lot sooner and you also kind of expect have the latest thing.
I remember it took me 2 years of asking for a cell phone and this included extensive research, power point making, and list of reasons making. Even then, I didn’t get it until sophomore year of high school and that was because my sister was going off to college and they figured it would be better just to get us both one at the same time. Now this phone didn’t include texting. I didn’t get that until half way through senior year of high school and I paid for that myself ($10 a month). My first phone was a Samsung blue/black flip phone.
Samsung SCH U340
It always makes me nostalgic whenever I watch past TV shows (especially Gossip Girl), where I’ll see a phone that I was constantly envious of wanting and it was a flip phone or one with a keyboard.
Computers have also changed a lot in the past couple decades. We had dial-up internet where you couldn’t be on the phone while you used it (and it made that horrible sound). There was a desktop for the family and maybe your parents had a laptop for work. My first computer was an old old desktop (Macintosh II) It didn’t have internet but I was so proud of having it. I would save my work to a flop disk and print it out on the family computer. I got my first laptop in 5th grade (that was also when we got cable internet). I was envious that my sister was getting a laptop (she was going into high school) and that my dad wasn’t using one of his anymore so I got the Apple PowerBook G3.
PowerBook G3
(with removable CD drive, flop disk drives, and internet card slot )
Now I’ve gone through about 4 laptops (1 was my dad’s old one and 1 I shared with my mom). I have a MacBook Air now and I love it the one thing I didn’t like was that it didn’t have a CD drive and since I like making mix CD’s for my car, I bought an external one.
The last change that I want to talk about in music players. iPods and MP3 players haven’t been around that long if you look at it.
I know that this is an old graphic
(it doesn’t include about couple of generations for the iPhones).
I feel like ipod’s started getting big around 7th grade or 2004. That’s when all the fun colored ones started coming out like the iPod Mini. I got my first one in about 8th grade it was an iPod Nano first generation in white 2 GB and I loved it. It was my baby. I used it until it was recalled in 2011 for a defective battery. I’ve had about 6 types since then including iPhones. I’ve loved and am still loving most of them.
I am grateful for experiencing all the different changes in technology through out the past decade or so. With so much technology changing, I feel most people forget to be thankful that they can have all these gadgets. Remember to be thankful that second generation iPod or the new iPhone 6. Also, don’t always be tied to technology, get out there and do something else every once in a while.
