Evolution of Technology

As the new year approaches it seems like we’re being plunged more and more into the technological future that was once imagined. Maybe soon we’ll have flying cars and floating buildings. Nonetheless, along with all these advances are previously forgotten inventions and culture ; however, since all these preceding factors paved the way for the world that we now understand and strive for, it is important to pay homage, so as we roll into the new year let’s remember the following evolutions:

Communication:

We’ve come a long way as humans. It’s almost seems a little barbaric to think we used to physically write and mail letterers just to convey some form of information. Communication seems to be so essential that is has evolved several times over the past decades. After writing, we moved from telegraphing short verbal messages to full on phone call conversations. From there we took it a step further and transitioned to sending information electronically (e.g., fax, emails, text). In this move to the future, common routines like calling an operator, dialing a country code, and using calling cards have been forgotten, along with devices like house phones (cord & cordless), flip phones, and dial up internet.

Storage:

There have been a few revolutions before my time, but when growing up, I originally used floppy disk to save and submit my school work, however, there has been a relatively quick transition from external to cloud electronic storage. Floppy disk looked cool, but had limited space so they were quickly replaced with CD’s but more prominently Flash Drives. There was probably a period in your academic career where you needed to have a physical drive for a project or paper, however, more recently schools and businesses allow for you to upload/access personal files through online storage. Google Drive, iCloud, and Dropbox have made a prominent stamp in today’s electronic storage climate.

Money:

Sending money to someone used to be commonly understood as physically mailing them some cash or checks, but then turned to wire transfer with the prevalence of bank accounts. However, money orders were a frequent method for people who didn’t have  bank accounts. Corner stores & Western Unions became pivotal establishments when it came to sending and receiving money. Now Apps like Venmo, & Cash App have begun replacing banks as platforms that allow you to send and receive money. The convenience of being able to exchange money in a few moments on your phone have made these the way of the future. Most Banks have even adopted this technology into their applications’.

Entertainment:

Long gone are the ways we used to consume media. At one-point books, music, and plays ruled the world, but then tv and movies came into the equation. People used to have to go out to places to watch or listen to what they wanted. Later came the option to physically take home what you wanted to watch or listen to…that was the era of CD and video stores, but now an advance in technology has replaced these places with streaming culture. Now if you want to watch or listen to anything, you can more than likely find a site that streams the content you want.