Life Is Better Last 50 Years

Vincent Do

Professor Grant

Freshman Composition

9/13/2018

Life is Better

Comfort, it is something everyone desires in one way, or another. Whether it’s through money, family, friends, or even power, people seek out the pleasures of comfort. Humans in general, don’t like to seek change when they are comfortable with what they have, but within the last 50 years, technology has changed everything in the way people live. Things that seem so unnecessarily inconvenient now, were once the norm for people, only half a century ago. This is how technology has made society and the daily lives of people more convenient than they were 50 years ago.

        Back in the 1970’s cellphones had just been introduced, with the first ones being the size of bricks and weighing around just two pounds, it was the most reliable source of wireless communication at the time. However, with a cost of just under four thousand dollars, or about twenty-six grand if adjusted for inflation in 2018, it was outside the affordable budget of most of the populous in the 70’s. This left home telephones as the primary method to communicate with others quickly. It was not until the 90’s when technology had improved the first cell phone from a brick to small stylish pocket-sized device, did cell phones really become a popular and mainstream device. As the cell phone continued to become more and more popular throughout the years, so did the desire for faster and better phones. This drove technology to ultimately progress cell phones into miniature computers. Better known as smart phones, in 2018 people are able take photos, browse the internet, and most importantly communicate with others. The cell phone become an essential item in daily life.

Libraries used to be the most resourceful place to go for information, but nowadays thanks to the internet, smartphones have given people access to a whole world of information at their fingertips. Information can be shared through many mediums, but throughout history books and papers have been used to pass down knowledge. During the 1900’s when it came to the distribution of recent events, books were replaced by newspapers and radios as the most effective way to spread news. Along with the uprising of television around the 1940’s news of recent events had become easy spread. Despite this, the method of searching for specific information had remained the same, as books were still the only reliable way to find answers to questions. With only the dewy decimal system, libraries were confusing to navigate, but finding the book with the correct information needed was even harder. In the beginning the internet was formed by the American government, with its initial objective to be used as a way to connect multiple computers in a grid to create a defense network. Through this connection and sharing of data across multiple computers on a single network, the web was created.  The web often confused with the internet, was just a way of connecting and accessing data online through websites and hyperlinks (Andrews). The web would soon become popular with the public, as users would also share their own information online. Eventually, search engines such as google founded in 1998, would be created to have an easy way for people to search for websites. With search engines coming into play, the internet had become the timeliest way for people to find solutions to whatever inquiries they might have.  

        Over the years, the internet has become much more than just a giant library in the sky used only as a tool to learn from; the web has also become the perfect way to keep someone entertained. With an infinite source of content from all over the world, people can now spend Friday nights with no plans, other than to browse websites such as reddit. Previously, before technologies such as computers with internet access were able to be found everywhere, people had to find their own sources of entertainment. They would spend their afternoons listening to the radio, watching television, or socializing with their friends and neighbors. In the end people will always resort to socializing, as listening to the radio and watching television was only so entertaining, as the users wouldn’t get to choose what they wanted to listen to or watch. The rise of personal computers and the web would allow people to decide what they wanted to do. Along with arcades and video games being popularized in the 1970’s, the options available to spend time online was limitless, while the appeal to socialization stayed the same. People will always socialize if they choose to, as it is part of human nature, but technology has given more alternatives to those who choose to be more introverted.

Businesses have also been greatly affected by the changes in technology over the last 50 years. With computers and the internet, the ability to broaden and expand a business have become possible. Before, businesses that were in small “communities were much more localized,” with businesses and customers knowing each other on a much more personal level, while todays businesses have to meet the high “demands of a faster-moving” society (Taylor). In the past services would be much slower since everything had to be done by hand. Either writing by hand, or typewriters were used to document info, and white out was the only way to retype mistyped words. The term paper work used to literally mean stacks of paper to be sorted out and worked through. With the computer saved documents could easily be kept on the computers making organization much easier. Especially with wall street, the use of spreadsheet programs quickly came into play, as the internet made trading stocks and keeping track of them much more straight forward as everything was automatically done. Before if someone had wanted to purchase a share, they would’ve had to tell their stock broker and from there, the broker would tell the traders, who would then go to a meetings with other traders and haggle for the best prices. In the end technology improved efficiency in business making it much more convenient for customers.