WHAT WAS IT LIKE?

Back in the day, no one had a computer, the Internet, cell phones and a lot of people didn't even have a TV. It's weird to think how our parents got by with out it, now-a-days you couldn't find a house that doesn't have all that stuff.

Today people always complain that their, "computer is too slow," and I one of those people; our computer at home is dial-up, and it takes a day and a half just to check my e-mail. But when you sit back and think about it, at least I have a computer and the Internet. I don't have to write my English papers on a typewriter, one mistake and you have to start that whole paper over.

I often wonder what our parents thought the future would be like, was it the same way we think today? What more do we need, as far as technology? I mean, how else could we get more advanced? I'm not saying that we're not going to get more advanced, but if you don't have it, what are you missing out on? Not many people go to the library to find a book to do research for an English paper today; I never do anyway. But our parents did, they didn't have a computer to do it on, they weren't even around, so what were they missing out on? Really, nothing.

So if you sit back and think about it, what are our kids going to have that we never even thought about? We have the Internet, we're doing good, you can find anything you want on anything, and you can find it in less than five minutes...so what is the future of technology going to be like? How much less will people be interacting with other people, and how much more will people be interacting with computers?

My question to you is, what was it like, and what is it going to be like? Will it continue to change drastically as it has in the past 50 years? It's hard to say.

CELLPHONES VS. LANDLINES

For years now the people running for president have called people on there home phone. Today only 22.3% of younger people have land line phones. Even I have a land line but i never use it, I'll always wait until after 9 to call or I just text.

So is the delima of so many cellphones going to hurt this presidential election? I highly doubt it; it might be harder for them to call us and tell us what there plans are. However, most senors still have landlines, but are they trying to get senors out to vote, for the most part, they'll either vote or not, and there wont be much changing their minds. This election is dependent on the younger generation, (or so it seems).

So the younger generation, (us) don't really have home phones, we really don't watch a lot of the news, and we really don't have time to read the newspaper, (we have too much reading to do for college anyway). But the one thing our generation has, that although they my know of it, senors don't really use it, and most the time, neither do our parents, we have myspace, facebook, hi5, and countless others. There hasn't been a day that I've signed into myspace without seeing an add for either McCain, or Obama.

I don't see cellphones having an effect on the election, at least not for the worse. Cellphones might help one of the parties, for instance, Obama has an add on TV telling viewers to text "HOPE" to 62262, and if you do this you will receive information on his campaign. If one person does this, they send that information to there friend, and so forth.

So if you ask me, I don't think cellphones will effect this election for the worse.

TEXTING

Have you noticed that everyone has a cell phone? If you haven't noticed there has to be something wrong with you. No matter who it is, and most any age older than 11 has a "cell" now-a-days.

I remember our first cell phone. I was about 8 or 9 years old, and we got it so my dad could drive from Ohio, where we lived, out to Colorado. It was this little brief case type bag, about 10 inches long, and maybe 8 wide. You had to unzip the case to get the phone out. Now you could see what you were about to call someone on. It was about 8 inches long, it was huge, and it had a cord attached to the case. This thing was no flip-phone, and no one would be cough dead with it now; it was a house phone that you could make calls on when you where not home.

Today, if you don't have a cellphone your really not that cool, (or so it may seem). Most Every person today would never be cough dead without a cell. The smaller and the cooler the phone the better you are. Why are these stupid little computers so popular to have. The Cellphone was made so you can make calls on it when you were away from home; now you can take pictures, video, instant massage, check you e-mail, text, and isn't there one more thing?...Oh yeah, call people.

Today Texting is one of the biggest things to do. When I first got my cell, I couldn't do a darn thing, now I can text without looking. I know I'm not the only person out there that has that talent. Most everyone can do it. I see people in class glance down enough to see who texted them and what it was about then, they go back to "paying attention" to the teacher, but you can see them still taxting under the table.

Colleges use texting for emergencies, politicians use texting for advertising. Texting is one of the biggest new ways of interactive media. I would be willing to bet that there is not a second of the day that someone is not texting, and it's more than just one person at a time.

So because 99.99% of every body has a cellphone, there's just one question out there, do cell phones give you cancer?

I doubt it...

Things to Come

It's kind of funny reading As We May thing by, Vannevar Bush. Reading about someone who came up with ideas like this but never lived to see what we will end up having. Think about it, people today talk about robots, joking that we're going to end up like in the movie "I Robot" where robots end up taking over. A day like this may never happen, but they still write books, and make movies about it happening. And just think what other kind of media someone will come up with.

Vannevar Bush had a great idea 63 years ago that we use in every-day life today. How many times a day do we use our computers. Things that someone might come up with, that sound too hard and complex to try, but in 50 years it might be something that most every person in the world uses on a day-to-day basis. Such as computers; just the other day my roommate got a new lap top, and it has a camera installed right onto the top of it. It's crazy how many things you can do on one piece of equipment.

Think about the things we can do with our electronics today. You can get on your computer and look at anything you want from all around the world. It might end up getting to where it's like the movie, Wall-e, where people don't even have to think for themselves. Everything is all just voice commands, you just say what you want and the technology knows what to do.

We could be at the peak of our invention in media, but I cant say it is. I was in a store the other day, and they had a desk top, all touch screen, you didn't need a mouse or anything. It's amazing how stuff changes, and how fast it changes.