Hoo boym where to begin? I was born in the early '60s making me a Boomer. This means I went through Grade School and HIgh School in the 70s, College until the mid-80s. Started working early '90s, went through several crisis in our country - both political and economical. Lost regular employment in the early 2000s, went through consultancy mode ever since. So as you can see, lofe has been inconsistent.
But how about technology? Let me focus on specifics...
The phones. In my childhood, they were bulk, rotary dial types - all landlines, but there was not enough lines, so sometimes we had to share the phone lines with someone else - a total stranger. It was only later that we finally had enough lines for everyone. By this time, the rotary dials were relaced with touch buttons for numbers. Numeric keypads on our phones - no party lines to clog up the need to wait until tehy were done. At least that was an improvement.
Then in the 90s... cellular phones!!! They were bulky, but wireless - also a bit expensive to use, but it allowed us to communicate when needed - prior to that there were pagers, but you had to go through a service provider / operator and it was all texts - now you could call directly. Time went and the phones got smaller, slimmer and smarter.
Then Steve Jobs introduced, the iPhone, and Nokias and Blackberry slowly diappeared. I've been using an iPhone ever since - albeit not getting the latest version. I use it, but am not addicted to it. Now I don't just call, I can text, listen to music, connect to the internet, and send email, or check social media posts of friends from differnt parts of the globe. We're all interconnected now. So yeah, even sending letters have become passe - not when it's faster to shoot an email or send texts, or make a call. Donw side? The darn contaptions have too much thigns in them, and not everything is user freindly in a visible way - some capabilities are hidden within layers of menu items.
The camera - I came in during the digital camera's time. The manuals were too expensive, plus developing costs - and there was a delayed gratification when seeing the pictures - if your picture was blurry, tough - the instamatic cameras of old also did not help alighn or center the subject - you just had to do trail and error. There was no focusing - unless you had the cameras with interchangeable lenses, and manual focus options. Nope... too much work, and trial and error - thus wasted opportunities, and at times, bad pictures.
But when the Digital Cameras came around, I saw the advantages at once. Instant gratification - the picture was a file you coud see... don't like it? Take another while you're still around. No blind developing and paying for even bad pictures. Don't like them, delete - try again. Later there even apps that alowed you to do post editing of pictures? Too dark, add brightness or lighten the picture. Color a bit off? Adjust it. Don't like pesky backgrounds, crop what isn't important.
But if you wnat to go beyond just instamatic, you can get a DSLR, and have the same capability of lens changeing, experineting with black and while is possible now. But lugging all the needed equipment like the camera, tripod, lenses - they can be heavy too. Now, they have mirrorless cameras, and suddenly you can have models that are a third of the old one's size. Others can also take videos - so you don't need a separate videocam. While at it, consdier that your phone can do most of what the photographer does with their DSLR. So the entrace to Digital Photography, or Videography is now w lot easier, and cheaper.
Music and Movies. Back in the day, want music? buy a vinyl - either a 33 (long player album - complete with dust jackets), or the 45s (smaller recors, usually containing a sinlge song. Of coure when it gets scratched, you'll hear some popcorn, or you player's needle will just jump over the scratch with a terrible noise. Movies were just in cinemas. Then the digital storage of data was possbile, we now used CDs, music at first was reorded and stored in tapes, be they the betamax or the VHS. Later still, Laser Disks were made - promising video and audio quality. I hated those need to switch storege types. I have movies or enve TV shows discs that I can't play anymore because the use of DVD options have been replaced.
You now have USB storage capacities large enough to store not just one, but several movies. Then we have streaming services - for a membership fee, you now have access to countless movie titles, TV shos, Musicals, Foreign (Korean, Japanese, Chinese) media - that is, aside form the English, British, Filipino titles. Music is also digital, so you can have access to a multitude of genre, TV series with multiple seasons. Books can now have their own digital copies - and your pad can carry a multitude of titles.
Games? We started with board games. Then they became crude computer games that had poor pixelization - doesn't mean that they weren't fun. Liesure Suit Larry, Prince of Persia, gave me hours of fun. Before that, we even had palm sized games - called Game and Watch. These were a lot more advanced and interactive than the old Monoploy, Clue or Game of Life. Risk and Battleship were fun as well. Of course, the PC games got better.
Then there was the multi player shoot em up options - so you needed a network of comptures to play. The Classic Starcraft was used to test run our Classroom Network set-up, I mean if it can withstand multiple players it could easily handle a class fileld with students studying Excel. So yes, I allowed the gaming in the school's classrooms because there was a practical reason for it. Just like we had those kinds of games in the ADB, when we had no training (during our off days). I personally enjoyed X-wing. So playing during off hours had it's precedence.
Of course, the table tops did not totally disappear - and the TSR dice games were a classic example. We used tokens or small figures, maps to rpresent adventure movement, had pre-made adventure by Gary Gygax and company, and this allowe duo forma a party quite similar to the characters in fantasy novels (yes, most of us were Tolkien fans). Now? With Internet, you can form a party from players aroudn the world - you just had to be in the same timezone, or some of you had to be nightowls. I' guess I'm too old for those games that will demand a lot of time investment between ou and others. i just use my phone to play soduko.
Meetings have changed - in fact were were forced to change because of the worldwide pandemic. Before that, we needed board rooms to have a meeting, you needed to use facilitation tools to get people's ideas and build consensus. Then with the internet, virtual session could now be used. COVID forced us to use online as the rule, rather than the exception. It became a point where we now prefer these virtual meetings as tools for people in different parts of the city - or the world. They're real time, and one needs only worry about poor Internet connections that will make you lag. But a lot of us like this, rather than facing hours of traffic.
In a funny way, this made people focus on buying tops and not much on clothes below the waist because others won't see your bottom clothes anyway. But there you have it... even a large conference can happen virtually - an impossibility, one would have thought just several years ago. So... should we thank the pandemic for this?
Lastly, at least for me. Online shopping - sure, I still go to malls and stores - but I probably buy a lot of things (liek clothes) online - used to be I had to hunt for clothes - more so, those of my size. Department stores seemingly just make it an afterthought to stock up on my size options - unless they have a plus-sized stall. Not to forget the time to travel, heat, traffic or exptreme rainfall. All add to the hassle of brick and mortar shopping. Nope... nowadays there are at least four online store platforms I can check for any kind of product. No wait period when buing online books. I can now buy shirts, and business attire - even a few fashionable coats, shirt, and accessories.
Because of this, I've updated my wardrobe - something I also needed to do during my year as a Division Director. Just this morning, I ordered dog food. I expect delivery by tomorrow, or a day later. Online payment also made this easier to do. No need to carry cash around, just your ATM card, or your phone.
