Timeline: Technological Communication

“Can you hear me now?”

Honing in on the cell phone, in the history of human communication, has astounding results. About 40 years ago the first big brick phone successfully made its first call. Today, billions of cellphones later, anyone without a cell phone is out of touch. To be in touch we must have something at our fingertips ready to assist us as no other person or best friend ever could. It is amazing what we confide in our phones today. However, just as with any and every relationship, there are strings attached.  Even this mobile cordless device has many people strung on the overwhelming amount of information and promises it provides.

Researching this device and observing its impact on culture has shown me that the device was never intended to make us its slaves but vice versa. Unfortunately, as with anything that seems too good to be true, we only  notice the true and over all effects after our enamored eyes have cleared. Today the cellphone is almost needed to survive and we can’t continue without it for very long. Unfortunatley it also has tracking devices that other people can track us through. It also contains many secrets that we thought personal. Because time has proved to us that our phones are the furthest things from private we have learned to cope with using a device that can answer almost every question at our command and at the same time has the power to crumble our lives outside of its virtual world (like our jobs and actual perception of us).

Also through studying this device I have been able to notice the attachment and value we give the cell phone. Although we can’t live without its function, it’s outer shell is disposable when a more attractive “skin” for it comes out. In today’s world, when that same thing is even possible for humans through cosmetic surgery, it seems as though our values are no longer held in a good conversation but in the superficial delivery of it — can you here me now?

 

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