My Life - Chapter 6 - It Changed My Life

When I was between 6 and 10 years old one thing I loved to do was call the time and temperature phone number. 

A woman’s voice on the other end of the line would answer, “…at the tone the time is 7:32, the temperature is 32 degrees.”  My Dad called the number when he set clocks around the house or to make sure his wristwatch was on time.

Those moments popped into my head with this week’s StoryWorth question, “What inventions have had the biggest impact on your day-to-day life?”

After calling the time and temperature line, I walked upstairs to the family library (the corner at the top of the landing where our books were on floor to ceiling shelves) and get one of my children’s editions of the Encyclopedia Britannica.  What’s an encyclopedia? Simply speaking, Google in print.

For this reflection, I “Googled” inventions since 1963.  Within seconds I could choose from several lists.  There are many impactful inventions.  The most important may be the ability of surgeons in 1967 to perform a life-saving procedure known as coronary bypass surgery.  There are dozens, if not hundreds, of medical advancements during my life that have turned medical death sentences into ailments that can cured or lived with for years.

Medical advancements through research and innovation rank second on my list. 

The most impactful invention during my life is the computer and the technology that goes with it. 

Think for a moment about the Apollo space missions.  Computers filled large rooms to run the computations needed to get men and their machines to the moon and back; today there is more computing power on a small chip in your phone.

In 1968 Integrated Computer Systems were introduced.  That meant users could do more than one thing using on-screen windows, link files, word processing, graphics, and a mouse.  The next year four computers were linked together to send packages of data from one to the next. 

The first generation of the personal computer arrived in 1977.  The World Wide Web became a thing in 1989.  More recently, the IPhone (2007) and Artificial Intelligence devices like Siri and Alexa (2010) further changed the way we use computers!

While advancing through elementary school; graduating high school; and earning a college degree I took notes during lectures and while reading text books; I memorized facts and figures; if I needed information I couldn’t find in our encyclopedias at home, I went to the library. 

When I joined WISC-TV in 1989, I used a small computer known as a TRS-80 made by Tandy/Radio Shack.  It was the size of a laptop but 2-1/2 inches thick. 

I wrote stories for Channel 3 on a TRS-80.
(internet image)

Before that, I used manual typewriters in my work as a reporter.  For high school graduation, my big gift was a portable electric typewriter. 

In my next job selling insurance, the company furnished us with a laptop weighing 15 pounds.  It came with a briefcase which held a portable printer.  It was heavier than the computer.  In ten years selling insurance I had four laptops, each one lighter and more advanced than the one before.

It wasn’t until the late 1990s that we started using the computer like we do now.  Like many people we paid for an account with America On-Line which provided an email account and what seemed like a universe of information and access to anything we wanted to know.  The connection was through a phone line, so if someone was talking on the phone you couldn’t use the computer and if you were on the computer you couldn’t make or receive any calls.

How did this change my life?

When we moved away from Wisconsin I was able to read the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel online to keep up with the latest news about the Packers, Brewers, Badgers, and Bucks. 

It meant I could communicate with my sister on the other side of the world and get a reply in hours instead of the weeks.

The computer allowed me to create my “own” radio station so I could listen to the music I wanted to hear.

As phones became smaller versions of our computers, it meant we didn’t need to memorize facts and directions because we could look it up at any time or anywhere.

The advent of social media and the algorithms of computer systems used our information and what we did online to foster tribalism on a scale the world hasn’t seen since before the industrial revolution.  There are positives to those advancements, but also significant consequences.

There used to be a morning or evening newspaper in every city with a population of 25,000 or more.  Larger cities were home to TV stations affiliated with the three major networks and the programming that aired on those stations.  On some level, we received news from similar sources reported by people trained for the job.

Today, literally anyone can create and distribute content.  Many of us subscribe to news content that matches our world-view.  Items go viral.   The rapid processing of information and the volume of it gives stories the same weight to the point where people believe if it’s “true to them” that’s all that matters.

The culmination of all that technology has been a great relief during the Covid-19 pandemic.  While we couldn’t travel to see family, friends, or far-away places we could visit virtually thanks to Zoom or other connections through our computers.  We can spend hours watching videos or stream movies or old TV shows.  For many this has been a relief and given us joy.

Like nearly everything else, computer technology and its many advances are neither good nor evil.  Innovations can help or hurt, benefit or destroy, uplift or destroy – it’s up to us how it’s used.