Talking nonsense with my sister this morning, we concluded once more that you can determine someone's age according to the technology he or she has seen being born. As hardcore as it may sound, to me it’s absolutely true. Let's face it...100 years ago the technology revolution had just started. Few illuminated ones could foreseen where it would take us. I remember thinking that in the year 2000 we would be floating around in space suits, driving un-gravity cars and communicating with each other with telepathy. Imagine my disappointment when Y2K arrived missing all this sci-fi props.Allow me to explain that our age can be defined by day to day, entertainment, accessible to "all" technology. The one that is suposed to make our lives easier and funnier, sort to speak. More so, make us happy XD...surely at least a bit less grumpy ;). We owe plenty to this advances, let me bring to the table a few world wide renounced little ones:
- Electric stairs.
- W.C.
- Refrigerator.
- Washing machine.
Well well, I've been never much afraid of admitting my age (not like I've lived that long anyways...23 years) but lately, as my little siblings turn 20 solid years, I can't elude noticing time passing by, as fourteener as I might feel. This year after their birthday, I've been contemplating the sings of time around me and in me. For instance, I'm allowed in any club in any country I've been in, I can legally drink "with moderation"...Those are some the privileges of age in a young cub as me.
Thinking about my age and reviewing with my sister; we named a long list of little inventions that we've seen been born. Allow me to add that having lived 22 years in a Latin America country, there's a delay in between techno being born, and techno being introduced to my existence. We will for the sake of this dissertation, assume that my reference is the one of the techno been born.
To be the first to throw the rock, here I go:
- Desktop (as in available to general public).
- Nintendo (far from being the Wii, it was definitely a step in the right direction. And may I applaud the creators of the wii wireless technology for their knowledge of the user...or, weren't we all pulling on the little controller thingie to make Mario jump higher and further?)
- Mobiles (yup, my dad had one of those brick ugly ones)
- CDs (May I comment I used to record songs from the radio into a cassette XD yup! I was literally a mix tape girl)
- DVDs (Well, my little cousin has seen this being born, so...XD)
Not being this the entire list, I want to comment on those little thingies I've seen die:
- Betamax (I even had Cinderella, Peter Pan and Fantasia on it)
- Atari (Contrary to the new reuse the fashion of vintage technology is bringing, I used it in the time it was released)
- LPs (my dad still owns a collection!)
Not to bore you all with my reminiscence, I invite you once more to give me your share of gadgets you've seen born and die...come on...you can't be THAT old ;)
6 comments:
There have been many inventions in the last 25 years!
The most important inventions to me are the IBM PC (1981), the Internet (1983, first TCP/IP wide area network) and the World Wide Web (1991). But there are many others: GPS, genetically modified food, WiFi, camcorders, TFT displays or the Hubble telescope.
I would however expand your line of thought. From my point of view what you really mean is that our lives are affected by our pasts up to such point that it is possible to induce how someone's life is by knowing parts of their past that are well known to the most of us.
Therefore I think you should not constrain your argument to technology. Just think of historical facts. You and me have seen the consequences of the Chernobyl disaster in 1986; the fall of the Berlin wall in 1989 and two years later the dissolution of the USSR. The first and second wars on Iraq are contemporary to us, as well as the 9/11 attacks which surely seem to be the real beginning of the third millennium.
I'm not a big fan of the Mario saga. Instead I am devoted to Sim City, which definitely is the best invention since the wheel :)
Hey! thanks for writting!
It's interesting the way you expand my line of thought, but is not originally what I meant. Surely it's interesting to analize someone's life by the history this person has lived, but I stay in the shores with this. I just wanted to propose a review of your age according to technology.
And you propose some interesting inventions! I'm sorry you are not a fan of Mario XD I loved it, it was a big part of my childhood, and so I look upon it with deary nostalgic eyes.
I've tried Sim City, and it's very interesting!
-Shere
Hi Shere, I'm back!
For one time I completely agree with you, and here are my "milestones":
* I was 4 when color television was introduced in Argentina (because the 1978 Football World Cup)
* I still have memories of visiting "car selling shops" looking for my father's first car (was a second-hand Fiat 600!)
* I remember the day my father came home with our firs (B&W) TV!
* I can remember our first telephone line and number! (821692)
* I've played Pac-Man for the very first time in an Atari console in the earlies 80's.
* I started to "write code" in 1984 in a Texas Instrument computer (16KB RAM, including the expansion)
I stop here because the risk of being boring! :D
I'm glad you did the excersise. It's interesting a flashback so technology related. At the rate we are "advancing", I don't want to know how much will be changed when I'm 90 XD...think about it guys...scarry!
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