221109 Technology

We have so much new technology these days that were incomprehensible many years ago.

This post is about those days long ago.

Back then, travel was so different. The majority of Americans had and worked on farms. Their form of transportation was by horseback or wagon. Going to the closest town may have been a half hour of travel time, or even a half of a day .

Electric lights, forget about that. Farm families got up at dawn and went to work. Their work days went from dawn to dusk. They went to bed shortly after dark.

Many people traveled by wagon from Saint Louis to Oregon or to California. That trip took 5 months to make and was not without danger from local tribes along the way.

Out in Nebraska, farm families lived in sod huts and spent cold, windy winters using dried cow chips to burn for heating. Many went bat guano crazy during those long winters.

Think about that for a minute, no radio, no TV, no internet, no streaming services. Would you go crazy today without that? Many working people today put in an 8 hour shift and then go home. What would you do to fill your time after work without radio, TV, streaming services or internet?

39 years ago the first practical cell phones arrived and few people had them. Now nearly everyone has one. There are almost as many cell phones as there are people on the planet. Can you imagine not having a cell phone these days? Many people I know use them instead of using their computers. I wonder how many people still have landlines through ATT these days?

It was 1993 when the internet became usable to the public. It was expensive to use, paying by the minute. Now it is unlimited and inexpensive for most people with the salaries available these days.

Our world has changed more in the last decades than ever before.