I woke up Sunday morning, rolled over and grabbed my tablet. After about ten minutes my phone rang and twenty minutes later I was sitting in front of my computer preparing the outline of this article. For the first time in quite a while I felt overwhelmed by technology.
Today is my daughter’s twentieth birthday. When I think back to when she was born I had limited choices between a 66 megahertz computer and a television remote. Today we have smart televisions, smartphones, tablets and computers.
In 1995 only truly important people carried cell phones. Today everyone has a phone that does everything. Within seconds we have access to what our friends are up to via Facebook. We no longer need to go outside to check the weather. Netflix even picks the next movie I’m going to watch.
Twenty years ago I was lucky enough to have a cordless phone and when I started my first ‘real’ job was given a fax machine. When my ex-wife and I would have parties, guests would gawk at our fax machine. The novelty of that technology is no longer a thing because everyone has the means to send an email.
We may simply have too much technology. Even though I like to think of my employees as technology gurus I’m constantly purchasing systems for internal educational purposes. Google’s Chromebook was my latest purchase. Not only does Microsoft and Apple author operating systems, but Google is now in the game.
On the flip side, twenty years ago I carried a stack of roadmaps in the car. Navigating to a new place meant flipping between pages while I dodged oncoming traffic nearly killing myself in the process. I was happy when GPS technology evolved and I was able to suction cup the content of all those maps to my windshield.
I guess the real question is how many of the same type of thing do we need? And while I’m asking, how come we need to update so frequently? My old cell phone makes calls just as well as my new one. In fact, it also has the ability to go online, check Facebook and do all the stuff as my fancy updated version.
So many times I hear young people talk about how they have an Apple iPad and an Android tablet (or some other duplicate technologies) and I wonder how they can use both at once. If you think about it, we only have two hands and one set of eyes. Similar devices from various manufacturers do pretty much the same things so having multiples is redundant.
Even I become overwhelmed with technology at times. I shouldn’t admit that I have dedicated devices to certain applications. For example, the computer I am using to write this article gets turned on once or twice a week. I have a separate computer dedicated to doing audio recordings and yet another that only turns on when I’m traveling.
We’ve reached a time on the technology continuum I never imagined we’d hit. Not only do we have the means to do just about anything electronically, we can do it many different ways. I am predicting that by 2035 only the strong will have survived and only the best-in-class for each device will be available. If I’m wrong I’ll have ten or eleven tablets next to my bed when my daughter is my age.
(Jeromy Patriquin is the President of Laptop & Computer Repair, Inc. located at 509 Main St. in Gardner. You can call him at (978) 919-8059 or visit www.LocalComputerWiz.com.)