I can remember when cellphones first came out... Boy, I sound like an old person here, but this was merely 15 years ago!
In 1998, I was in matric and cellphones had just come out. At that time there was no such thing as smartphones, tablets, laptops, email, the internet, flat screen HD televisions, Macs, etc. I recall there were beepers (like we see the doctors been beeped on old school TV shows) and PDAs - remember those old TV's with the big box attached to the back, overhead projectors, cameras with film, large video cameras, Beta and VHS tapes, LP records, tape recorders, walkmans? Wow, what a different time it was. Children and even teenagers nowadays would laugh if they saw the things which we used back in the day :)
I remember the very first large Nokia cellphones which came out - it looked like a brick compared to the tiny slim cellphones on offer today :) Screens were only black and white, no colour screens like we have today and the keypad was limited to the numbers 0-9 where each number represented 3 letters so you had to press 1 once if you wanted to type an A, press twice if you wanted a B and press three times if you wanted a C, etc. They didn't have a camera or the ability to connect to the internet (since the internet was around yet) they had basic functions like making a call or sms with a couple of games. A year or two later, they came out with smaller cellphones, flip-phones were the in thing. Then they came out with colour screens, then later on with cameras, then later on with music, then later on with internet, then the slide-phones were in fashion... now the cellphones are getting bigger as they have more functionality (better graphics, more features, faster speed, better cameras, more storage space). Now touch screens are in fashion, some phones scan barcodes, you can bluetooth a picture to another phone/laptop, you can view a pdf document, you can BBM/Whatsapp your friends, you can instantly take a photo and upload it onto Twitter/Facebook (my, my, how did we live without social media before!), you can use GPS, check the weather, book a hotel, do a money transaction... the list goes on! Cellphones have become mini computers.
Once upon a time, there were car phones but are non-existent now since everyone has a cellphone.
Computers - Back in the day, desktop computers were huge, the graphics weren't good and it was not very user friendly. Remember Netscape and that funny game where you draw vector diagrams using command statements? Remember floppy ad stiffy disks? Haha, the godd old days :) When I was at university, I was introduced to email and the internet, nowadays we can't imagine a world without it. Remember good old fashioned snail mail? when you had to actually hand write a letter and post it :) Remember when you had to go to the library to use the encyclopedias for class assignments? and then you had to photocopy the pages :) Gosh, nowadays you just google it on your phone or laptop and get an answer instantly! Now there are fancy laptops and tablets (which are really just small laptops since now they come with an attachable keyboard!).
Television - Remember Beta tapes? Then VHS followed, then DVDs. TV's initially were big boxes and only in black and white. TV's came out in SA in the early 80's I think. Nowadays, TVs come in either Plasma, LCD, LED or 3D and range from small thin screen monitors to about 52 inches. The clarity is amazing nowadays. A great invention has been PVR - pausing live TV, rewinding and recording... amazing (so useful especially nowadays since there are so many advertisements!)
Music - Back in the day, music was played on LP record players. Then tapes followed (with walkmans as the portable version), then CD's (with Discmans as the portable version) and DVD's. Now music comes in MP3 format and can be downloaded easily and play on laptops, cellphones, iPods, etc.
TV Games - I remember the days when I used to play games on our Commodore 64 where we had to load the game which was on a tape. I remember Atari with joysticks - with games like Pacman. I remember TV games with the console and the cartridges - with games like Super Mario Brothers! I remember the good old arcade games, my cousins and I used to play a lot at my grandparents shop in Port Elizabeth. I remember those little hand held games with games like King Kong. Gosh, those were the days :) Nowadays, there is xBox and Nintendo Wii (our personal favourite past-time) with life-like graphics and the ability to play others around the world. You can even use the internet through these game consoles so that you can get the latest news and weather and even watch videos on Youtube.
Cameras - Back in the day, we used those cameras with film and then you had to go develop the photos and keep the negatives in case you want reprints in future. Today, the entry level digital camera is 16MB with lots of storage so you can happily click and away, and whatever you don't like you can just delete with a click of a button.
Typewriters - Remember these? We had an old typewriter, I used to use this for my school assignments. It was so noisy when you typed and when you made a mistake you had to go back and go over it with a tipex strip. I remember that one could type in black or red. When you wanted to go onto the next line you had to pull the lever. Now typewriters are antiques :)
Overhead projectors - My teachers used to write on transparencies and then project them on the projectors. Nowadays, lessons are projected via laptops and presenters can change slides at a click of a button.
Technology has taken over the world! in just 15 years, the way people live has completely changed. Access to information has never been this quick and easy. The internet connects the world. Technology will only continue to improve and evolve. Even children are using iPads and cellphones. What next? What will the future hold for us?
Along with the good there is also a lot of bad things that technology has brought about. People have become dependent on this technology (some addicted) and have the need for instant gratification. Information can be so easily accessed ideal for hackers, stalkers and fraudsters. Social Media is changing society and how people interact - adults and children are becoming more phyically anti-social as they friend people in chatrooms and on facebook.
To think about it... life was a lot simpler 15 years ago. We weren't distracted by all this new technology - you weren't physically attached to your cellphone and constantly checking for messages, tweets or facebook updates. Children could just be children and play outside. People could just live their life and appreciate the little simple things in life without distractions.
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