Innovation

When I was a young child, I remember daily life and the ‘technology’ surrounding our household then. Some of those products and services are still with us – pencils with erasers, cars, trucks, even planes, although in my early days those were rare. Home appliances were common in stoves, refrigerators, washing machines and vacuums. Radio was common. Movies were attractive pastimes and technicolor movies were terrific.

TV was not yet invented. Nor were computers, cell phones and lightning fast communications. Those advancements came over time.

I recall the family gathering around the radio – the big one in the living room, listening to Lux Radio Theater. Those programs were commonly a half hour, sometimes an hour long. Dramas, rich descriptions of settings with sound effects aiding our imaginations. We were thrilled with such performances. The gathering of the family was a good thing, too; warm, accepting, loving.

We read books in those days. Magazines, too, but they were expensive and so we had Life and Post come regularly to our house on a weekly basis. Of course, The National Geographic magazine was a fixture in our home. We even stacked saved copies in the basement and garage. They were ‘research’ havens for our studies for school. Similarly, Encyclopedia Americana was a fixture in our home. We looked forward to the annual yearbooks that updated our set of books. The latest information, don’t you know!?

Today, we don’t have encyclopedias. Instead, we have the internet, connections with libraries and data bases on unlimited topics. We have word processing software on our computers to replace typewriters. Yes, my peers experienced the gradual shift from desk top typewriters to portables, to early computers, finally to desktop computers with sophisticated word processing software. Even that software morphed continually. We learned at least three major software packages to successfully type a document on the computer. In the early days, even in college, a lot of students did not know how to type and thus did not own a typewriter. I earned as much as $5 per page to type papers for my colleagues.

Of course, we now have cellphones. In college we called home on a pay phone in the dorm stairway (one for three floors). Calls were short because they were costly. Home was in New York for me while college was in Illinois. $5 calls added up quickly.

When cell phones began to be more common, those of us doing business often in the field were granted car phones wired into the electrical system of the car. Later, portable battery powered phones were assigned to us for each trip. Eventually we had our own phones. We even bought ‘bag phones’ with heavy batteries for our spouses so they had communications in the car should they encounter an emergency. Most likely they were used to call home saying they were on the commute home and please take something out of the freezer for dinner.

Today most people own a cellphone, each of us. We don’t share the phone. It is part of our identity and immediate communication connection. If I trip and fall, the phone is there to call for help. If I have a flat tire or mechanical breakdown with the car, I can call for a tow truck and backup transportation from friends and family. Those calls were not possible before cell phones.

Even better, modern autos have Bluetooth technology that automatically connects our phones with our car computers and sound systems. We can voice call people, voice answer calls, and transact such business hands free. We are never alone if we want company. Of course, we can be alone if we remember to push the ‘off’ button on the phone.

Too few of us don’t turnoff our phones. Turning them back on is complicated and scary. Some of us still have much to learn about modern technology!

I think most of us take technology for granted. It is such a part of our life we are unaware of the invisible infrastructure that makes it all possible. And available.

Another reason it needs to be championed by government!

August 3, 2021