THE GREATEST INVENTION OF MY LIFETIME

I suppose every generation sees the advent of new inventions.   For my grandparents’ and great grandparents’ generations telephones, electricity, and indoor plumbing were the major inventions.   For my parents, television, the space program and fast food restaurants were major inventions.  For my generation, we have seen so many new inventions it would take a complete dissertation to explore all of the inventions since 1973.   Tonight I consider the question: “What is the greatest invention of your lifetime?”

My generation has seen the birth and popularity of common items such as the VCR, Cable Television, MTV, Tape Decks, Compact Discs, MP3s, rotary-dial phones, cordless phones, car phones, pagers and now the “Smart Phone”.   Computers have gone from huge monstrosities requiring an entire room to house to devices small enough to fit in one’s hand.  Tonight, I am typing this on a computer keyboard located on my lap.   When I have finished writing it, I will post it on a website which house my blog and then post a link on the social network, facebook.  

So, what is the greatest invention of my lifetime?  That’s a tough call, mainly because with the progression of technology, almost everything is connected to everything else, and requires a symbiotic relationship to operate properly.   So, what gets my vote for the greatest invention of my lifetime?   It is the one thing that brings us all together—the Internet.   While the internet has existed in some form or another since before my generation was born, its use in the mainstream has become something used by the majority of us each and every day in one way, shape, form or fashion.   I believe it was 1994 when I first heard of an “email address”.  I remember when we all first got email…it was the greatest thing we had ever experienced.   From email we moved on to wireless devices.   Today, we live in a world that is so connected to our wireless devices that we look at people strangely who say “oh, I don’t have a call phone.”  And, yes, there are a few people out there who don’t. However, it is probably safe to say that the majority of people do have a cell phone—and if they don’t know how to operate it, their child or grandchild has probably taught them how the thing operates.  

Many times the way we receive our news and information is from a friend’s posting on facebook or twitter, both marvelous networks that would not exist without the Internet.   Because of the Internet we are able to communicate with our friends who are on vacation an ocean (or more) apart…INSTANTLY.   I recently had a friend vacationing in Asia.  I was able to send him text messages on his phone…and because of a wireless network he was on, he received them…as quickly as I sent them…a world and many thirteen time zones away.

Here’s my confession:  I am addicted to the Internet.  It’s where I shop. It’s how I communicate.   While I will still sit down and write a hand-written letter, I can’t imagine the world without the ability to text, email, and instant message.   Verbs like “Google” “facebook” “facetime” “tweet” “text” did not exist 20 years ago, but are now a part of the landscape. 

The Internet allows us to communicate with old friends, make new friends and know as much or more than we ever needed to know.  We’ve come a long way since that rotary dial phone we had in 1973 and the Commodore 64 we had in 1985 to the PC we had in 1996 to the MacBook and iPhone we have today.   Every generation probably thinks they have seen it all…and then another generation comes along and improves, reimagines or completely creates something entirely new. Maybe we are too connected to one another, but I, for one, am thankful for the technology we have today.    I’m sure that five or ten years from now I’ll laugh as I look bank and remember how I completed this document.   The best, as they say, is yet to come…and I believe it.