Keeping Up With a Changing Technological World
In 2007, Blu-Ray players were released for public consumption.
Since 2007, (really since 2002,) I have been watching DVDs on my Play Station 2. I also have a hybrid VHS and DVD player, but the DVD player half never quite worked right and would often skip, or freeze.
The year is now 2019.
My Play Station 2 is still prominently displayed below my hand-me-down 65 inch tube TV, fully functional with one regular and one wireless controller. I still have a handful of games, and I still use it to watch DVDs.
When my friends come over, they laugh and express nostalgic excitement for my PS2.
My boss leant me Game of Thrones Seasons 1 and 2 discs because I have not seen them.
When I brought the discs home, I discovered that Season 1 is on Blu-Ray discs. I called my cousin who lives nearby and I said, “What is Blu-Ray?”
Her response was, “They’re old high definition DVDs that nobody uses anymore.” I said they are new, and that I am not using them yet.
I called my neighbor to see if they have a blu-ray player, and if I could borrow it. Coincidentally, they had just loaded their two Blu-Ray players into their car and were about to drive to the thrift shop to donate them, so they gave me a hybrid Blu-Ray and DVD player and said, “The blu-ray part works, but not with new Blu-Ray discs.”
I said, “All Blu-Ray discs are new.”
I brought the player upstairs, elated at the new addition to my entertainment system. When I inserted the first Game of Thrones disc, it did not play. It must have been a ‘new’ Blu-Ray disc.
Eventually, I acquired a Blu-Ray player that was able to play the discs. So, now there are two Blu-Ray players on my living room table: a technological revolution for me.
Very soon after, in my online Introduction to Digital Communications, 600 level Master’s class through Syracuse University Newhouse School, my professor presented a slide deck that discussed technology in 2007, what led up to it and what came shortly after.
Blu-Ray was in the ‘what led up to 2007’ section of the presentation.
I snuck a photo of the class screen on my 2013 iMac with my iPhone SE (the version that came out after the 5C, before the iPhone 6), and thought, how do people keep up?
When I sent my cousin the photo of the class presentation, she said, “You can automatically tell something is old because it says, ‘all the rage.’ Nobody says that anymore.”
As a student of digital communications, I choose a piece of equipment that works, and I take care of it so that I can have it for a long time, because equipment is expensive.
In 2014 I bought a Canon Rebel T5 DSLR camera in order to start my undergraduate studies in Communications at Le Moyne College. Now, that camera is old. It still works just fine, but there is less compatible software and hardware, and a line of better Canon cameras available.
My laptops are from 2011 and 2012. They are not able to process things the way they used to. In fact, my 2011 Toshiba PC recently deleted its own desktop and I effortlessly lost everything that I had on it. I have used the 2012 MacBook Pro for the Adobe Suite, and now it faces similar issues. It deleted my background photo on its own, and freezes with rainbow snow in the background if I open more than three applications at once.
My iPhone SE, having been charged with 210 volt electricity instead of 120 volt on multiple occasions, often freezes and creates and sends its own messages instead of simply autocorrecting.
I imagine I could afford to upgrade one of these devices, if I could sell all of the old equipment that I have, but nobody should buy it.
What happens to old technology? Is there a realistic way to keep up with the changes? Am I hopeless, or can I upgrade all of my technology? If I do upgrade, how much time before I have to do it all over again?
I have learned a lot in ICC-602, but the last thing that I learned was that I have some catching up to do. I am proud of my devices, but I imagine life is easier for those who keep up with the changing technological world.
Poet Fury 