Do you ever stop and think?

Do you ever stop and think about how much technology is around us and how much technology has already come and gone to a certain extent?  When we say technology our society assumes that it must involve a computer and the internet and that without those two items there is no technology.  Are they right?

There are so many technology items that we knew when we were younger and that everything about these items were cutting technology at the time they were mainstreamed.  For example take a record player, if you think about the first record player it was large and cumbersome usually with a large cone like structure attached to it.  When I was little my record player was a Fisher Price beige and tan plastic item that was meant to withstand all sorts of abuse from children.  Now today, I would love to know how often people still use a record player, and in some cases I'm sure there are people reading this blog that have no idea what I am even talking about.  But when I turned on my record player and I heard Bruce Springstein through the speakers I was living and breathing the best technology that I could have ever imagined.

When my brother and I finally saved up enough money to buy our Nintendo (yes, the original one) you couldn't tell us that there was better technology out there.  Our gaming console was not in 3D, it did not work through motion sensors, we did not actually jump around to get our little Mario to jump we sat on the floor because our controllers had wires that connected to the console and we hit the buttons that caused Mario to jump from brick to brick and gather the mushrooms to free the princess.  Now the gaming technology is of course far better.  Gaming consoles are created solely on motion sensors, and they are 3D and you have a plethora of games to choose from and you are able to get exercise while playing video games.  This technology floors me honestly.

I could go on and on in regards to technology that has come and gone so to speak and when it was here you could not convince someone that it was not technology or that it was not cutting edge.  So, take a few moments and look around you sometime to see the technology that you are missing that you use everyday.  When you get your phone out of your pocket, have you ever wondered what we did before cell phones (like wasn't that bad), when you turn on your IPOD while you are running have you ever wondered what people did before these?  When you turn your radio on in the car remember that not all cars came with radios for a long time.

Of course the standard technology is there and will always be there.  We are a lucky society that we are able to turn on a computer and have the entire world at our fingertips, that is something that I am sure some people thought would never happen.  But take a minute today and tomorrow and realize that technology is all around us.