In viewing the video History of the Internet I began to think about how much our world has changed since the age of typewriters to laptops that are smaller than typewriters of the past; and can do more.

The image above, with the caption, is from the first episode of the hit television show Mad Men. Head secretary Joanne shows Peggy the ropes of working at a Madison Avenue ad agency, where in the 1960’s a simple typewriter was considered an advance in technology.

In the past you needed these three items to do a separate task. To call someone, you needed a rotary phone, to tell someone that there was someone to see them you had to use an intercom, and to type out information to distribute you had to use a typewriter. Needless to say, things have sure changed.

Now computers, and even cellphones, can do all of these tasks in the palm of your hand. When the computer was invented, it didn’t change the future right away. Computers according to the History of the Internet, could only do one function at a time. Plus, they were huge. Pictures below is a scientist from the RAND corporation next to one of the first computers ever built:

It’s pretty easy to see why the computer, when it was first built, didn’t get a lot of traction. It was not economically possible for an average home to hold. In order to have a computer, one had to have a separate cooling room for it. All of these components pictures above, and we haven’t even discussed the internet. Simply being able to access one site that does multiple things, is impressive enough particularly when one considers how large our former computers were.

Now, I can sit comfortably on my bed with a computer that only takes up a small fraction of what used to be a computer. Not only can I use a word processes, but I’m able to type these words and access a blog. What I continue to learn through this class from my own thoughts, is how remarkable the mere access to the internet actually is, and even the technology of a laptop has changed so much over the past. This, despite a computer and internet access being a constant presence in my life while I grew up.