COMMUNICATIONS
Back in the seventies, with a pocket full of loose change we could call the girl/boy friend from a public phone box, one of which was conveniently located not far from home and talk for hours much to chagrin of the queue of like minded people waiting outside.
We could also make long distance STD direct dial phone calls or make operator connected trunk calls especially when you had used the pocket full of change and needed to reverse the charges. We still wrote letters, albeit to thank great aunt Maude for the $1 note she had slipped into your birthday card or to let mum know we were still alive and send more money, especially after dad had refused to accept the reverse charge phone call.
As we entered the eighties we were lugging shoulder bags that contained a telephone that weighed as much as a besser brick and had the range of two tins joined with a piece of string. We were buying commodore computers and learning about DOS and root menus, so we could play great games like ping-pong provided you didn’t mind waiting for a couple of hours while it loaded.
By the time the nineties came along we had advanced to mobile phones that were small enough to stick in a pouch attached to your belt, computers that would automatically load programs thanks to Mr Gates and we could access the World Wide Web and even Email friends (provided no one wanted to use the telephone for a couple of hours).
The 00’s brought us pissy little phones that were so light and small we would forget where they were, even when in your pocket. We developed the incredible art of the two thumb SMS text message and Broadband internet gave us access to anything anytime and the ability to email stupid jokes and images to our friends (usually with a virus attached). It also brought us Geocaching, Google, Google Earth, and Wikapedia.
And now of course we have smart phones and Ipads with Wi-Fi and 4G so we can access Twitter, Facebook and Instagram anywhere, anytime to let our friends know our every move, thought and location.