I often find myself thinking about the ways in which my everyday
life has changed over the past twenty years. Usually, I take a
step back and wonder how my mother - who passed away seventeen
years ago - would view today's world. Aside from the
geopolitical changes that have taken place in the past twenty
years, and the ways in which the landscape of our city has
changed with explosive growth and development, there are the
wondrous developments in electronics that have changed the ways
we do business and the ways we spend our leisure time.
Twenty years ago, I started using my first PC at work. I recall
having to put in a floppy disk every time I wanted to do any
word processing. It would be another six years before a friend
told me about what he thought would be the next big thing -
something called the World Wide Web. Today, of course, it's
crippling when my DSL goes on the blink; my work grinds to a
halt and I marvel at just how dependent I am on the Internet.
I look around my house and see all kinds of electronics that I
couldn't have dreamed of twenty years ago. Sure, I had an Atari
way back when, but I never would have imagined that Pong would
evolve into a myriad of video games that my family could play on
the PlayStation, Xbox, and GameCube. Yes, I had a VCR, but I
never would have conceived that the VCR would make room for the
DVD player, and that my TV screen would grow to such large
proportions. Nor could I have imagined that my TV would host
such a myriad of systems: PlayStation, Xbox, DVD player, and DVR
recorder.
And then, of course, there's the digital revolution in cameras.
Not only can I take photos and share them via the Internet, but
I can also run slide shows on that same TV. I can take my
digital camcorder, burn home movies onto discs and send them to
relatives half a world away.
What's even more amazing to me is that virtually all of the
electronics consumer goods that I own have been given to me as
gifts. I've been fortunate enough to enjoy the bounty of an
electronics revolution that I couldn't have imagined twenty
years ago. Which, of course, leads me to wonder what the next
twenty years might bring in the wondrous world of electronics.
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