Lately I've been thinking about changes. I've been going through a lot of them recently but I don't want to talk about me. I've been thinking about technological changes a lot and the impact they've had on society. I've briefly discussed some of these with a couple people but I wanted to put a list together. This list is going to be mostly based on changes that have happened in my lifetime (the last 26 years). This is probably going to be an ongoing post. Here's what I have so far:
A major change that occurred when I was a kid was the change from cassettes to CDs. I used to sit in my room and listen to my boombox, record favorite songs off of the radio, etc. Cassettes had a lot less space than CDs and you had to flip them over to listen to the entire album. I didn't mind though. Kids nowadays don't even know what a cassette is. It makes me feel old. CDs are more expensive but much more versatile. You can load music, photos, documents and whatever else onto a CD.
Along the same lines, the change in movies. We had VHS. There were also laser discs which didn't last long. Now we have DVDs, HD DVDs and Blu Ray. Again, we see that these forms offer more versatility than VHS. We used to go to the video store and rent movies. Now, we download them or get them in the mail from Netflix or watch them instantly on our computers or video game consoles. A friend of mine mentioned to me that soon, kids are going to ask what a video store was.
Libraries...does anyone really use them anymore? When I was a kid, we had a class in school on how to use the library. I haven't set foot in one in years. If you wanted to read a book, you either bought it at the store or borrowed it from the library. To do school work, you had to go to the library and look up information in books. In order to find those books, you had to look in the card catalog. Remember the Dewey Decimal System, people? The only reasons people go to the library now are to use free internet or for a quiet place to work. The internet has pretty much replaced the need for libraries. You can find any information you need from the comfort of your living room and you don't have to pay late fees. I had to take a research class in college...the class was held in one of the computer labs in the library. I'm pretty sure the class didn't mention using books at all.
Here's one that I've recently discussed with a couple different people: writing. Handwriting, to be exact. When I was young, we had to learn how to write in cursive as well as printing. We had handwriting books with practice exercises. Now, we type...everything. I'm not even sure they teach handwriting in schools anymore. The only time I ever write in cursive is when I sign my name. I will shamefully admit that I no longer remember how to write everything in cursive. There are some letters that I don't remember. I know that I'm not alone in this. Kids used to write in diaries or journals and hide them under their mattresses safe from the prying eyes of parents and siblings. Now type everything and save it on our computers or post it on the internet...just like this.
Cell phones...they're not what they used to be. When I was a kid, we called them car phones because that's where they were used. People had them in their cars to use for emergencies. My dad had one...it was in a leather bag and plugged into the cigarette lighter. You couldn't use it if you weren't in the car. Now cell phones are more prevalent than actual landlines for homes. Everyone's got one. I see kids in elementary school wandering around with cell phones. It kind of makes me sick. Most people don't even use their cell phones for speaking either. We text, we send photos, we browse the internet and visit social networking sites. Rarely do we speak.
Video games. My first one was an Atari. I don't think I need to dive too deeply into how much these have changed, do I?
The internet. I remember when it started to gain in popularity. It's taken over pretty much everything. We use it to communicate via e-mail, chat applications and social networking sites. We do our research, our shopping and even find love on the internet. I could go on and on but I don't think I really need to. It's changed everything.
This is getting long so I'll pause for now. I'll probably come back and add things later. I just want to drive home the point that there are so many things that have changed as a result of technological advances just in during the time I've been around. Imagine what our parents and grandparents think. They've seen so much more. We've all become lazy and anti-social. I wonder what it will be like if I have a kid. Feel free to comment.
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