Pre-Web Technology

When I think about the technology I came in to regular interaction with as a child, it was mostly limited to the telephone, television, and radio. Computers were around, but not ubiquitous. Until I was in middle school, the only time I had exposure to a computer was in the school computer lab. However, the broad availability of the internet and affordable Windows PCs in the late Nineties changed all of that. Suddenly, things seems to evolve at breakneck speed. By the time I was graduating high school, everyone had a cell phone in their pocket. The telephone in a home was once the main means of communication with the outside world, a fixture of the kitchen wall with that really long, twisty cord and everyone would fight over use of it. It was one thing when that power was reduced to this clamshell that fit in the palm of your hand, but I truly revolutionary moment when Apple introduced the iPhone. Our entire perception of what a telephone was in form and function was forever changed by that pivotal device. Not only did a phone possess the power of a computer, but it could reach out in to the air and bring unlimited knowledge and content to your fingertips. How we engage today with the internet and technology more broadly can be traced back to the introduction of smartphones as the essential tool that equipped us for a mobile world.