Week 9: Clear

One thing that I understand extremely well is is the history of computers. In particular, the movement from the 3rd wave, which is the introduction of personal computers, to the 5th wave, concerning the common presence of computers in our daily life.

Photo by Bill Bertram from WikiCommons
 (http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Pixel8)

When I was a child in elementary school, we would freak out over the chance to play Oregon Trail at a friend's house (typically the one kid who everyone knew actually had an AppleII-- though one of the later models) or during class (on the only computer available for that grade level). I actually have friends who still own a Commodore 64 and keep it in their closet for nostalgia.

When growing up, my family did not have enough money for a computer, and so I never really get "into" them. I was more than happy with my NES (that's how gamer nerds actually referred to a Nintendo back then); this behavior continues to this day, where I'm more likely to turn on my Xbox or PS3 then my laptop (at least when I'm not in school).

But I digress, my point is that many things that are now considered a "part of life" were once just novel. People thought they were cool, but didn't see the need for them in their life. With Moore's law taking effect and technology getting cheaper and faster, we as a culture came to see how efficient and helpful these devices really could be.

For myself, by the time I turned 20 I had bought my own PC which I build myself and was using it to compile my music collection and go onto the Internet. Now, I use to professionally write, correspond, network. Furthermore, my TV is always connected to Xbox live where I join voice chats, interact with Netflix, and--of course--play online competitive video games with people all over the world.