“Dark Ages” Life before Technology
Over the year’s technology has revolutionized our world and our lives. We have a world of opportunity at our fingertips, with a plethora of apps and platforms. However, before technology, an app was something you’re ordered at a fancy restaurant, and avenues were something one stood upon. Not to mention Amazon now, which was just the largest river in the world, not the largest online retailer in the world. Many will say life was less busy, less stressful, and more enjoyable before technology, and others will say technology has made things faster, more comfortable, and fun. Well, it made life easier.
Let’s talk about social media; for instance, being social before technology meant you had to leave your house. You wrote letters to mail because there was no email. There was no Tinder if you wanted to date someone, you called them on a landline telephone that stayed in your house, or you wrote them a love letter, “Do you love me?” check YES or NO. What a Concept? A Social Media post was a printed hard copy piece of paper that you taped or stapled to a bulletin board.
“Dance Tonight,” “Grandma’s chicken soup recipe,” or “Tupperware Party after work today!”
Amazingly there were no 24-hour news sources; the news only came on twice a day. Trolls were mythical creatures in children’s books. Web design was strictly for Arachnids, and before GPS, you had to use a paper Atlas.
Way before you could use the largest search engine called Google or simply ask “Siri,” you needed to leave your house and go to a library to do any research or reading, unless you were one of the lucky few that had Encyclopedias. You know those books that your parents purchased from a traveling salesman, that no one had ever met before, yet somehow, these individuals were invited into our homes for coffee and cookies.
Alas, technology has had a “Big Effect” on entertainment and hobbies. Today we live in a society of innovation and an ever-changing digital world. We live in an age of time where it is almost impossible to live without some form of entertainment, Television, music, photography, gaming and the list goes on and on. Before, there were very few channels to watch on Television and for some only one. You had to leave your house to see the latest box office hit, but not today. Today we have Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime, and many other service providers that allow us to watch anything we desire at any time.
Long before Apple Music, Spotify, and MP3’s was the innovative invention of the cassette tape. They were all the rage. You could record music from your AM-FM radio station. Sometimes if you were lucky. They quote “threw you a bone,” you could record or tape the top 10 to top 100 songs in one sitting. The other exciting thing was the Walkman, a portable device that ran on batteries with wired spongy headphones. Now you can listen to music anytime and anywhere with Bluetooth. Before technology, if you had heard that term, you would have thought you had a stained mouth from too much Kool-aide.
Let’s not even plan to start with gaming technology. Do you have all day? Before, we chased a dot back and forth on a tabletop console with two-dimensional graphics called Pong. Oh, and by the way, before I Phones and digital cameras, if you took a selfie, you could wait up to a week or more for it to be developed, except for the innovative invention of the Polaroid Instant film camera, which was pricey at the time.
Modern Technology made a massive discovery in 1992 with the first smartphone” and to present has paved the way for numerous multi-functional devices that are portable, have advanced software, and are always at your fingertips.
Before technology, did we live in the “Dark Ages” or is it an Innocence Lost? In moments of digital anxiety, some will see themselves as digital immigrants, and others will see themselves as digital pioneers.
