I find it almost incomprehensible how much our human interactions have changed over the past three decades. And virtually all of the change can be ascribed to the development of computing devices.
(Above): It’s almost like yesterday when I was at work sitting in front of a TRS80 (RadioShack) like this one,waiting for the little red lights to flash on the external drives to swap floppy discs.We even had extractor fans in the wall for the hot summer weather, just in case of possible electronic overheat!
Long ago, when you went on annual holiday, you’d write a letter to your best friend when you returned home, telling him/her all about it. In exceptional cases, you might even pop down to the pharmacy and order a reprint of the best holiday pic (out of the six or so that you may have taken at the beach) and include it with your letter. Three weeks after the event, your pal would read with fascination about your escapades.
Today, 30 years on, “some” people casually take a selfie in the supermarket, and post it on Facebook or similar, and forward it to a few dozen “friends” via Twitter-like media with a typically important comment, like “Me choosing some yummy new potatoes for dinner at Superjoe’s.”
Only to be outdone by one of those ”friends” (you know who they are) sending a contra-selfie saying “Me and Ben (sic) popping onto our Airbus A380 bound for Dubai (nothing less than first class seats for us, says Ben, ’cos I deserve it). Enjoy your spuds!”
Three decades ago, we hardly knew what was happening in other parts of the world until it had become history. The newspapers might conceivably have been a day or two behind the times, whilst the sports newsreels in the bio-cafes and cinemas were usually weeks in arrears. But, no matter, we were overjoyed being able to witness the two-minute Pathe excerpts from a Twickenham game,or someone slamming a tennis ball across centre court at Wimbledon. Remember the Manchester United air disaster at Munich airport back then (1958)?
Today, minute-by-minute updates of hostage or war situations flash on our mobile phone almost before they happen!
The constant barrage of oversupply of information in the minutest of detail has led to great difficulties for some people, as to deciding which part of the info-universe they should try to keep up with,and has made interpersonal conversation quite difficult for some.
I will not be around to witness it, but I wonder what the world of human interactions will look like in three decades to come, 2045. For me, that in itself is a strange number for a date.
No comments:
Post a Comment