Technological Advances in the Last Century Essay Example for Free

Technological Advances in the Last Century Essay In the last century, technology has changed mass media immensely. A hundred years ago, people would use the post office, a rare telephone or word of mouth to communicate across large distances. These were not the most efficient methods of communication. However since then we have developed ways of communicating in faster, more effective ways. In the 1920s, radios started becoming more and more popular. Not only did they produce music for entertainment, they also produced news stories and many advertisements. In the late 1920s, the Great Depression started. It was due to the radio that many people likely heard the news and offers of employment with Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal. As people were listening to the radio more often they also began to mistrust â€Å"big business†, because people started to feel exploited in all aspects of life by the large businesses. Since a lot of lower class people did not know how to read in those times, newspapers and written advertisements were not the most effective means of communication. This made the radio even more popular, because not only educated people, but also uneducated people could gain knowledge that was previously restricted to those who could read. When the 1930s came around, radio was still just as popular as in the 1920’s, and they also used motion pictures for entertainment and advertising. In the 1940’s the television began to make its appearance on the scene allowing the public to view daily fiction shows, as well as news broadcasts and advertisements. Families began moving from big cities to the suburbs, where being in close vicinity is no longer needed because of the television. Defense technology and satellites began the beginning of the internet as a result of the Vietnam War in 1959. During the 1960s, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) controlled radio and television airwaves, ruling what was appropriate or not for viewers to see or hear. Social issues such as race, class, politics, and prejudice are huge topics for television shows. In the 1970s a great new invention called the Video Cassette Recorder (VCR) was introduced and the public could watch pre-recorded movies, documentaries, or biographies of their choice. They could watch something other than a program they did not choose to watch, but were forced to watch, because of the lack of networks and programming. Computer corporations also came out with the microprocessor, which was, and still is, essentially the â€Å"brain† for a computer. When the microprocessor was revealed, computers were about as big as a small room. Computer engineers did not think, at the time, that a computer would ever be smaller than a small living room, because they did not believe it would be possible to create such a huge amount of information in such a small device. As we moved into the 1980s, cable television exploded into a nationwide phenomenon. Cable networks varied from all day long heartfelt movies to 24/7 news broadcasts to any music video you could think of to reality television. The digital era became fully fledged in the 1990s. There were computers in virtually every home, and consumers were able to use dial-up internet to E-Mail individuals, or to use it for business communication around the world. With the computers in the home and advancement of technology came the advent of the laptop. This was essentially a home computer that could fit on the lap of the individual. Individuals weren’t only confined to their own state or country anymore, the movement had become global. Compact Discs (CD) and Digital Video Discs (DVD) were expanding, having movies, music and video games as content. Soon, the population would learn how to use the internet to broadcast news videos and personal videos. As the world passes the turn of the century, movies, TV shows, music, books, magazines, and newspapers all converge on the internet. Within 10 years, inventors and major cell phone and computer companies develop â€Å"Smartphones†, or cell phones on steroids. Everything basic that anyone can do from a desktop computer, they can do from the palm of their hand. Soon, those boom into touch screen tablets, where anyone can watch podcasts, play games, write documents, search the web, and communicate more efficiently and instantaneously. As Bill Gates once said â€Å"640KB [of memory] ought to be enough for anybody. † (Adams McCrindle, 2008) This just shows how much our technology has advanced. Some portable devices have up to 64MB for memory, plus extra internal memory as well. That’s 65,536KB, about ten times more than what Bill Gates originally thought would be enough. In conclusion, media literacy is hugely important for consumers in this day in age. People are often on the run, working, exercising, taking kids to school or practice, that they rarely have time to actually sit down and read the paper, or watch the news. If consumers have all that information clipped to their waists, or in their briefcase, when people have a few minutes to relax, they can sit down and take time to do what they enjoy, whether it be watching the news, watching sports highlights, reading, social networking or playing games. Anything they want is at the touch of a finger.