Under Grumpa's Hat

Ever get the feeling that technology has it all wrong? Every so often, for people who have lived for many years on this earth, we look at what they call “progress” and think… is it really?

Imagine this… First, someone discovers emails. Wow! Instead of sending a letter, pay for stamps, and wait for the letter to arrive to its destination, you can simply go on your desktop, type and hit send. The message is delivered immediately! After that, you don’t have to wait for your correspondent to do the same to get a reply, a process that can take weeks just to send a question and receive an answer. What an amazing discovery!

Then, technology makes it so that you can not only send emails but also text messages, all of that from your hand-held device, no matter where you are (or just about). Incredible!

But wait! That’s not all! After all of that, technology has progressed to the point where you can simply pick up a device, dial a number, and you can actually SPEAK to the person as if you were side by side! What a revolutionary discovery, right? No need to type anything, just use your voice. No waiting for them to open and read what you’ve typed, boom, they’re on the line with you! You can hear their voice, while miles away!

Now with the example provided above, consider this:

• Alexander Graham Bell was awarded the first U.S. patent for the invention of the telephone in… 1876.

• It was 1971 when Ray Tomlinson invented and developed electronic mail, as we know it today, by creating ARPANET’s networked email system.

• The first handheld mobile phone was demonstrated by Martin Cooper of Motorola in New York City on 3 April 1973.

• The SMS (text messaging) concept was first developed in the Franco-German GSM cooperation in 1984 by Friedhelm Hillebrand and Bernard Ghillebaert.

Moral of the story:

What is considered advancement, progress or technology is not always what it seems…