The Pinged Hobbit

Society is evolving so rapidly that sometimes it’s hard to remember how things used to be. The speed at which technology advances is quickly changing how the world works. It’s 40 years since we first went to the moon, yet the computer that sent us there had less power than a modern calculator! Lets face it there are somethings we all experienced growing up that our children will never have to know about, heck there are somethings I experienced growing up that people 10 years younger than me don’t remember!

• Video recorders: Before the war over Blu Ray and HD DVD we had the VHS Betamax war. Just like the BR vs HD DVD no one other than the techies really understood the difference (or cared). At the end of the day it didn’t matter which format you had, both are now next to extinct. DVD recorders and Hard disk recorders have put an end to need to record to tape, and media centres have killed the video market.
• Audio Tapes/Vinyl: Tape killed vinyl as I was growing up, I can honestly say I’ve never owned a piece of vinyl in my life. But at least I’d heard of it. CDs replaced tapes and even those have now been replaced. Nowadays most people download their music in mp3 format (either legally or illegally).
• 56K modems: The wide spread use of broadband and wireless Internet has put an end to the 56K modem’s main use. Gone are the days of waiting an age to load a web page, gone are the days of the scream as the modem negotiates with it’s counterpart at the other end of the line.
• Phone Boxes: There was a time when you couldn’t walk 10 yards without seeing a phone box some where nearby. The advent of mobile phones put pay to that. Now that everyone carries a phone in their pocket who wants to use a pay phone?
• Map Reading: I have to admit, this one is nearly something I didn’t experience myself. With the widespread use of sat navs the reading of maps is all but extinct. Unless your child is in to orienteering there is a good chance they will never use a map.
• Thinking a 1GB Hard disk was big: My first computer had a 500MB hard disk, my first brand new one had 3.2GB. It’s not uncommon in these days of 1TB hard disks to find a PC with 4GB’s of RAM. The drastic grow in hard disk size (and memory) is unbelievable at times.
• Burning a CD/DVD: It’s not quite gone yet, but pretty soon it’s unlikely people will be burning stuff to optical disk. Why would you need to when you can get an 8GB flash drive for peanuts. Maybe you want to play it in the car, well now that more and more cars are coming with MP3 player connections why burn to CD when you can just plug in your iPod.
• Having to arrange things by phone: The mobile phone might have replaced the pay phone. But sizes like Facebook and Twitter mean we no longer have to call our friends to find out what they are currently up to. Want to arrange a get together? Create and event and invite them. You can even find out what celebrities are up to in some case.
• Been able to walk somewhere without being recorded: The big brother society is no longer a thing of the future, it’s here now. According to the BBC the average UK citizen is caught on CCTV 300 times a day.
• Forgetting to develop the holiday snaps: We’ve all done it, gone on holiday and taken lots of photos but then when we come home we don’t take the films to be processed for weeks afterward. With digital cameras being common place who needs to develop films any more. Heck you don’t even need to wait just watch them back on the LCD screen.
• Having to wait to watch the next episode: Losing this might not be a bad thing. Growing up, having to wait a week between episodes of a TV program I liked could be very annoying. Faster broadband saw an end to that, services like BBC iPlayer make it easier to watch them all at once. Or if you are really impatient you can find places to download them before that.

Kind of inspired by this article.