Not so long ago, technology has yet to sweep the country. We do things manually most of the time, we communicate less quickly, and we access information the traditional way-books, newspapers, flyers. Technology though, has successfully changed the face of the earth today that we seem to have officially outgrown the classic. And so please allow me to refresh your memory once more of the good old days..
Remember when pay phones were such a hit? Before iPhones, touch screens, and instant messages, the telephone had been our saving grace. A seven digit phone number is all you need to connect. When the need arises, all you have to do is look for a phone booth or local store and five pesos is all it takes – chat all you want for three long minutes. Another classic feat which surely stands in our homes until this day is the twelve/fifteen/thirty-volume encyclopedia. It is the ultimate display of our parents’ love and concern for our future, if only they saw google search and Wikipedia coming.
Who can forget the ever-reliable snail mail? Simply, simply, simply wait one to two weeks and you’ll know how your loved ones are doing. More so, mails are delivered by your friendly mailman at the comfort of your own home. You can even enclose pictures and choose your own stamp. At some point in the past as well, we must have heard or even saw beepers. It was quite a revolution as it was one of a kind: wireless. It is an operator-mediated messaging scheme where you receive zero offensive messages as the operator edits it out. Who says technology can’t be at all evil?
Backtracking will not be complete unless there’s the famous family computer. Long before personal computers became portable as in laptops and Playstation into PSPs, family computers were already just as small, handy, and easy to use. Also, one way or another we must pay tribute to cassette tapes. It has been our iPod and our little MTV for quite some time. Those were the days of the booming music industry thanks to piracy, file sharing, downloading, and the list just goes on.
We may not recognize it but sometimes the old feels like new. Technology can seem as overwhelming as it continues to evolve without notice. Before we know it, flights from Japan to the United States could span only four hours or doctor-patient relationship could become all the way digital. Reminiscing the era when things were not as complex, extensive, and immediate feels refreshing once in a while. Living in the now is a necessity. But reliving the past is just as fancy.
Shecainess's Blog 
Hi Ate Shecai! 🙂 Oh yes, the good old days of the “ancient” world. I must agree with you when you said that “Living in the now is a necessity.” The “antique” things such as the payphones, the beepers, the volumes and volumes of encyclopedia, the snail mail, the cassette tapes and everything else – they’ve been of great help to us, they improved our lives. However, it’s their time to go already for they have already served their purpose. We do not take for granted the relief that they’ve given us, but technological advancements give us something more – something better. We must adapt with the changing world, and with this adaptation, we must learn to let go of the past and look forward to the future. 🙂
“Another classic feat which surely stands in our homes until this day is the twelve/fifteen/thirty-volume encyclopedia. It is the ultimate display of our parents’ love and concern for our future, if only they saw google search and Wikipedia coming.”
though we do have wikipedia and google search, i’d like to stress that there is still much gratitude over the fact that encyclopedias and library books are still in existence… personally, i think that nothing can beat the credibility of these materials. if only they are as easy and convinient to use. 😉
I remember I used to be suuuuuper “inggit” to my classmates who have encyclopedias in their homes. I used to think that their parents must love them so much and wanted them to be really intelligent that they could spend so much money on large volumes of books. When I was in grade school, I don’t want to recite my homework in class cause I know there’s not much to share cause we don’t have encyclopedias at home. I also used to collect tapes and albums of my favorite boy bands then and sing along with the lyrics page that comes along with the cover. But these were all before and it’s funny now when I think about the many times I fussed over these small things.
We have totally come a long way.
Some people get too caught up in reminiscing the past that they box their selves in the idea that the old is always better. Yes, no one should get shot for having such an opinion, but let us just be fair to the new technologies that are yet to come our way. If we want to advance as individuals, and as a society as a whole, we need to learn how to look back and appreciate the nostalgic feeling without under-appreciating what we have now. 🙂
Ate shecai, I can totally relate to this! 🙂
When I was in grade 2, I loved sending “messages” to my mom’s beeper but now the word “wireless” is just another household name, a usual one. And when my mom went to Taiwan a year after, I lost contact with her. Only my aunt was able to keep in touch with her. Aside from the fact that I was young, I had no means or I’m not familiar with those. There came grade 5 where I listen to my favorite cassette tape of the band “Moffats” while I memorize my 6 page poem in Filipino. I listen to it EVERYDAY. Yes, I’m such a loser. 😀
And after I graduated elementary, there were three things I wished for: a set of encyclopedias, a plastic globe and a Bible. I got the latter but the first two, hmm, I only had wonderful nights dreaming of those. But now I’ve got even better! A laptop and an Internet connection. I need no encyclopedia plus I can also read my favorite mangas! Heaven! 🙂
We really have come into a new age where old things were repackaged to be new. Wonder if we’ll talk about new stuffs after 10 years and make blogs then about the “present” technology that we have. And then do the same thing after another 10 years and so on. I would want to see that happen. 🙂
Everything above just feels so…ancient, somehow. Haha. I think it’s because we’ve outgrown them; and that we’ve outgrown them because we now have tools which are more convenient for us to use. Of course, the phone is still going to be there for quite a while – and I still do appreciate leafing through the encyclopedias at home. The center of all this change, I think, is on innovation. We just always want to find easier, faster way to do things…and we do. So even though certain technologies and practices get obsolete, the things that made them useful to us remain and get integrated with the innovations that they inspired. 🙂
All that the things that you’ve enumerated above are actually buried by the people of the NetGen. However, I can still see the importance of adapting these “ancient” technologies in our world today. Personally, I’d still want to receive snail mails from my loved ones because I feel that those were made with labor and love. 🙂