I was born in 1956. I am 51 years old. I enjoy using my computer, talking on a cell phone, and am still fascinated by spaceflight. I like to watch DVD's, listen to CD's, and other types of recordings.
Today, we take for granted things that were not common yet or would have only been a dream when I was born. Yes, computers were around when I was born. But they didn't sit on a desk or were small enough to carry. They were in a room. More precise, they were as big as a room. Think
Univac. Space flight was in its infancy.
Sputnik launched on October 4, 1957. Video recording was possible, but not by the general public as it is today.
Recording on magnetic tape was still in its infancy in the 50's, having only been developed in the 1940's. Interesting side note here is that
Bing Crosby was involved it's commercial development.
DVD's and CD's were not developed until the 1980's. The concept behind
cell phones began in 1947 but the technology was not developed yet.
Yes, we have that technology and more today. Through much of this technology I listen to CD's on the way to work and enjoy music from the 1940's and 1950's. I can listen to old radio shows from the 1930's - 1950's. I watch TV shows from the 1950's. I am able to retreat to a time period before I was born.
So why do so many of us spend so much money and time to use this modern technology in order to go back to a period of time when this technology was in its infancy? Is it because many of us are afraid of today's world and we search for a time that we think is safer, more secure? I suppose people see the 1930's, 1940's, and 1950's as a safer more secure time compared to our world today.
Why? In the 1930's we had the
Great Depression and the rising threat of Nazism. In the 1940's we had World War II. And in the 1950's we had the Cold War. Presently we are faced with global terrorism.
Was that time any safer or more secure than today? Probably not! The difference is that we know how that time period ended and we survived it. I believe that the same thing will occur today. Then in 2057 our children will long for the "good ole days" of 2007.
© 2007 Barry T Horst
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Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
