Over the last decade, advances in technology have taken America by storm.  It seems as if a vast majority has access to even the simplest forms of technology.  Today, it is common for elementary school children to use cell phones, it is assumed that almost every household has at least two televisions with cable, and over half of the population has access to the internet.

            I am a huge dependent on technology.  It has just become a part of daily life.  I use my cell phone endlessly from making phone calls, to sending text messages, checking my social networking accounts, and even waking me up for class.  Television has also become a basic necessity.  I watch it when I’m bored throughout the day, when I wake up in the morning, and when I am getting ready to go to sleep.  I could only imagine how hard it would be to not have a television.  I watch it for entertainment, but also to keep up-to-date with the outside world.

            What is taken for granted today was not always so easy to access.  I spoke to my mother who told me:

 “During the 1960s and 1970s, most households could only afford one television.  It was usually placed in the living room, so the whole family could enjoy it.  In my home, our television only displayed primary stations like CBS, ABC and NBC.  And it was black and white.” 

She went on to explain that only the wealthy had multiple colored televisions.  It is hard for me to imagine a household with only one television with minimal channels situated in the living room.  It is common for homes today to have a television in each room with hundreds of  channels.  I have had a television in my room since I was five years old, whereas my mother did not get her own until she was in college.  This is similar to the Internet.

Computers with internet access were not available to the public until the 1980s, but it was still only limited to the wealthy.  My mom remembers when Apple and AOL were first emerging, and how excited everyone was about the new invention.  People were still using typewriters for documents, and using the Dewey Decimal System to check out books from the library for extensive research.  Today, most high school and college age students do most of their work on the computer.  They have programs like Microsoft or Open Office where they can type documents and create presentations, and have easy access to the internet where they can perform research, which eliminates trips to the library.  The internet is no longer restricted to only the wealthy population, much like cell phones.

Cell phones were made popular by, once again, the wealthy.  At one time, businessmen used to them as a more efficient way to speak with colleagues and clients. Many luxury cars were built with phones attached just below the radio for convenient usage.  Eventually, cell phones were made accessible by the general public. The very first cell phone that I have seen was a black Motorola.  It was huge compared to the phones used today.  It had two buttons, other than the numeric key pad, which were a green talk, button, and a red end/off button.  It was not used for texting, Skyping, social networking, or picture taking; it was solely used to talk.  I only knew a handful of people who were lucky enough to own a cell phone.

As I’ve previously stated, it is common for anyone – even elementary school children to have cell phones.  Anyone can have access to the internet and television.  What was once so prestigious and segregated, is now closer to being equally distributed throughout society.  I don’t believe technology is limited to gender or age, but in some cases it could relate to income, which subsequently relates to race.