Technology transition – An experience of a decade..

A couple of days back, I was sitting in a coffee shop waiting for a friend of mine, so that I could hand over a ‘4 GB’ thumb-drive to her. It contained a few heavy-duty softwares and docs that she had asked for. Just then I recollected a few glimpses of my past. Around 8 years back, as a 14 year old when I got my first PC (4 GB disk-space, 32 MB RAM), I was feeling on top of the world. Those days such specs were considered to be high-end in the personal computer market and when I used to think about the PC’s we had at school (2 GB disk-space and 16 MB RAM), I used to feel very proud of the one I had. On the contrary, here I was holding a 2 inch device boasting of storage space similar to what my huge PC had. Suddenly I realised that I belonged to a generation of people who had seen technology change in a big way but in a very short span of time.

I started thinking about how technology had changed the way we go about our day-to-day lives. Being a music buff, I couldn’t stay away from my walkman which used to play cassettes comprising of only 12 music tracks at max and now here I was holding a Nokia N70 ME in hands, one which has a 1 GB extended memory, can store thousands of mp3’s, provides crystal clear sound quality and what more..is basically used to communicate. Mind you..even a mobile phone was a rarity in the late 90’s.

Those days my PC vendor used to advise me to switch on the air conditioner while working on the computer else the PC could get over-heated….and now, I roam around with my laptop and don’t think twice before switching it on irrespective of the working conditions.

Those days, the internet had just started picking up pace and getting a connection was a hell of a task. You had those dial-up connections whose pre-requisites where never-ending…a telephone device, those never-ending wires and hooks, etc. Contrary to that, I now move around with a wireless internet datacard, handy 24X7. And guess what, in case it doesn’t work, I have a backup option as well….my GPRS enabled cellphone. Spoilt for choice?? May be yes, but yet we are not satisfied.

Talking of technology or the lack of it, how can one forget those never ending queues at the bank or flight booking counters..these days its all done online at the click of a button. Simple, isn’t it?

Well one could just go on talking endlessly about how technology has revolutionized our personal lives. A decade back, it would have been really difficult to imagine something even close to this and the same can be said about what the situation would be 10 years from now. No one really knows and thats how it should be. After all, if we had an answer to our future, why would we need a human brain to come up these unbelievable technological wonders. At least for my sake, I would love to be seated in a coffee shop 8 years from now, pondering over how technology has changed my life and I’m sure that would be an even more astonishing experience.

Ashutosh Didwania