Technology in the Past, Present and Future

Technology in the Past, Present and Future

From the beginning of time technology has evolved greatly, whether it be advances in communication, gaming or even automobiles, each change in technology has effected the population as a whole. Technology has changed so much and continues to change every year, sometimes for better and sometime for worse, but never the less technology changes and improves as time goes on and can change lives or even the future.

One of the biggest changes in technology would have to start with the communication systems. The history of the cell phone begins with a man named Samuel Morse (Marples 1). Morse constructed the first electromagnetic telegraph in 1832 and tested his invention on October 18th, 1842, when he laid wires from two points about one mile apart. Morse made one part of the wires go underwater to prove that the cable could transmit signals as well as wires from poles above ground. Fortunately a ship ripped up the underwater cables and Morse thought his experiment was over, but it was not. Morse kept his experiment up without the cable and was able to send his telegraph signals through water itself, ultimately creating the first telegraph to use electricity (Marples 1). Over the next 30 years people continued with Morse's discovery. Many scientist and inventors kept working with what the learned from Morse. They figured that running two lines parallel created electromagnetic field and that is when they realized they could send messages through the air (Marples 1). These parallel running wires are what we know to be telephone poles. From this point on we had landlines but people were always looking for something new and improved. This is when inventors started tinkering with the idea of wireless phone. Martin Cooper, too many who is known as the father of the cell phone. Motorola hired him in 1954 and he worked on developing portable products including the first police radio. He then led Motorola in cellular research (Marples 1). On April 3, 1973 Cooper did his first public demonstration using the first cellular phone (Maples 2). The then proceeded to walk down the street in New York City and people were amazed that they saw a man talking on the phone with no cords or wires. The first cell phone weighed 2.5 pounds was 9 inches long by 5 inches wide and a thickness of 1.75 inches (Marples 2), noting like the razor phones that can just slip into our back pocket! The first cell phone had a talking time of only 35 minutes and took about 10 hours to recharge, and the only features it was being able to talk listen and dial numbers (Marples 2). In 1983, Motorola introduced the "DynaTAC", which cost the consumer $3,500 (Marples 2). It took seven more years for the wireless phone industry to boom (Marples 2). Today, more people use wireless cell phones then there are people subscribed to landlines (Marples 2). The communication industry had drastically changes over the year, beginning with the telegraph then moving to landlines and now on to the cell phone. Even the changes in the cell phones have change so much, from the first phone weighing 2.5 pounds so some cell phones now only weighing 3 ounces. The communication system has evolved so much especially when you think about how the only means of communication was letters and it could take weeks or even months to receive mail. Soon the technology will increase so much there will not be landlines anymore and the world will run on cellular devices (Marples 2).

Originally to communicate people would have to write letters to loved one, family and friends. Now we can just shoot someone a text or post a message on someone's wall but because of these up and coming changes people are unable to communicate as well as they were when writing letters was the only means of communication. Take the cell phone for example; a lot of times people send a text rather then actually calling and speaking to someone in person and many believe "it is diminishing our social skills" (Burt 1). Some wonder if the telegraph had never been invented and never evolved into the cell phone if people would have better writing skills because letters would still be the only way to communicate. Technology may have stunted our growth in communication because a lot of technology does not involve one on one discussions.

There have also been many other advances in technology, some that are more for pleasure rather than a necessity. We now are able to sit outside and use the Internet thanks to wireless Internet that can cover whole city blocks of a particular area (Top25 2). We sometimes take for granted the fact that originally you were lucky if you had your own computer at home. Now most people, especially college students, have lap tops that they can sit outside with instead of sitting at home waiting at your box sized computer to connect to the Internet at a snail-like pace. Also for music lovers, people used to have to go to the store to buy a new cassette tape or CD when they wanted the newest music. Now we can go on to iTunes and buy single songs or whole CD's through the Internet, saving us time and money. Instead of buying a CD just because you like one or two songs was a waste of money and now you can buy just the song you want. On another note we do not necessarily realize the changes in the way we listen to music. People had to carry around cassette players CD players to listen to their favorite music. Now we have iPods that come with hookups so we can listen to our favorite music in the car. Things have evolved so much and some people cannot even believe what it would be like to not have televisions and listen to the radio at night for entertainment. This leads to the changes in television. Originally TV's were black and white and maybe had 10 channels. Compared to what we have now that was nothing. The technology has improved so much that there are hundreds of channels that we can now tune into. Not to mention the fact that there is On Demand and you can watch what show you want to when you want to. You can also buy newly released movies so you can watch them in the comfort of your home then having to travel to the movie theater. Some could have never imagined having a TV in color let alone having a gaming system to hook up to a