Technology Then and Now

 

Me -  I am so glad to have the technology of the 21st century.  We have i-pads and i-pods and computers and  streaming services and all that good stuff. For starters, people used to have black and white TVs, and now they even have 3D TVs. Even though, I wouldn't  want one of those it is still a long way from black and white TV. 

Cell phones now can fit in your pocket. There is texting and games and apps and Siri. They also have voice mail. Cell phones used to be huge.They didn't have any extra stuff. All they did was call. Home phones used to be attached to the wall. You couldn't carry them around your whole house. Even though some people still have wall phones, they usually have cordless phones too.

Now, in addition to iPods and MP3s, which most people don't even use anymore, they have music streaming services. You can listen to music right on your phone and other devices.

They used to have radios and jukeboxes, and if you wanted to have physical copies of music there were records and then cassettes. Now, we have CDs and records have become popular again too.

They used to record TV shows on a VHS. Then, there were DVDs and Blu Rays. Now there are streaming services which make it even even easier to watch what you want when you want.

 I am so lucky to live with all this great technology!

   

Mom - Technology sure changes a lot and it sure changes fast. First there were beepers and pagers.In the beginning, only doctors who urgently needed to be on call had them. Then, a lot of people started to carry them even teenagers. That was kind of strange to me. Then, they had these big old cell phones that were kind of heavy to carry around, and you couldn't do anything but call. Hardly anybody carried them around then anyway. Phones got smaller and smaller and could do more and more things. You could take pictures and videos and play games and listen to music and find a location and go online just to name a few things.

There were big old phones with dials. Then, there were smaller phones with push buttons. All of them were still attached to to the wall by a cord. Then, there were cordless phones and automatic dialing and answering machines.

There were records and then 8 tracks and then cassettes. Later, there were CDs. CDs sounded better and it was easier to find a song on a CD. You didn't have to turn them over or rewind them. Then,  there were MP3s, and  you could pick exactly which songs you wanted from any singer and any album and put them together and carry 100's of them around with you in a little tiny device. That was something I only could have dreamed of when I was a kid. Now, there are music streaming services and you can listen on your phone or other devices to any song you want whenever and wherever you want.

When I was young, there was no such thing as recording TV shows or owning movies. That was something else I only could have dreamed of. The first VHS recorders, you could only set for one show at a time and you could only record a few hours worth of programming per tape. When you watched a movie, you had to fast forward and rewind. Then, there were DVDs and later Blu Rays which made watching movies better. You didn't have to rewind and there were a extras like commentary, deleted scenes and little documentaries about the making of  a particular movie among other things. DVRs made recording TV better. At one time, you could set a bunch of episodes to record or even whole seasons of TV shows,  and you could keep many more shows at once without running out of space. It was so much easier to find your show too. Now, there is also streaming TV and you can watch just about anything you want just about any time you want. The only bad part about that is if you truly want to be able to watch anything you want anytime you want, you have to pay for a lot of different streaming services. Nobody can afford all of them, and sometimes it's just so hard to choose!

For the most part, technology just keeps getting better and better at a quicker and quicker rate. However, that makes it so hard to keep up with. It makes me feel overwhelmed like the world is spinning too fast or something. Sometimes, I would just like it to stop and slow down for a minute so I can catch my breath and catch up.

 

And that's our view. What is your favorite technological advancement to date?

Tune in tomorrow for Tips for Tuesday.

Photo credits:
photo credit 1: Thomas Hawk Never Wrong via photopin (license)
photo credit 2: pixelmattic Work Laptop Stock Image via photopin (license)
photo credit 3: RightBrainPhotography Vintage Rotary Dial Phone via photopin (license)
photo credit 4: tomsun Bambuser for Android via photopin (license)
photo credit 5: Skellig2008 Radio Radio via photopin (license)
photo credit 6: unmatchedv MP3 Player via photopin (license)