Those that had positive experiences in 2019 will probably comment on how fast this year has passed. The passage of time is put into perspective when we have time to reflect and remember how things used to be when we were younger.

I am not referring just to baby boomers who have an archive of six decades of experiences of life behind them. Most remember the phases when they were still schoolchildren, landed their first job, getting married when they became adults, had their first child, mourned the death of one or both of their parents, became grandparents and then retired. Generation X and Y also remember that when they were younger, some things were different.

The past 60 years have brought about such significant changes in our lives. My generation still remembers our streets shared by horse-drawn carts and cars that were a luxury which only the very rich could afford. In those days, people could buy ice creams, paraffin, clothes, fish and bread from street hawkers with horse-drawn carts. We could mend our shoes at a cobbler’s makeshift stand located in a prominent place in every town or village.

But we do not need to go that far to remember how things change when time goes by. I am sure that many young people have never used a film camera or sent films to a developer in the UK for printing. The smartphone has made everyone a potential serious amateur photographer. Photos are no longer stored in albums but posted on social media for all to admire. 

In 1981, buying a new IBM computer meant using 5.25-inch floppy disks that initially contained 360 kilobytes of data, just a third of 1MB. Microsoft Office 97 came with 55 floppy disks.The 3.5-inch floppy was a vast improvement as it could store 1.44MB but the last producer of floppies ceased operations in 2011. The compact disc replaced floppies. At the turn of the millennium, we started to use USB flash drives that are now much more affordable.

We continue to see profound changes in the way we manage our day-to-day lives

In the 1990s, those who could afford a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) were considered to be avant-garde. It was the first taste of things yet to come in the form of smartphones and mobile computing. PDAs offered a multitude of services to business people on the move.

Microsoft launched the Pocket PC in 1996. It was considered the ultimate status symbol for techies who attracted the envy of ordinary mortals who could not afford the high price of these devices. When Apple launched the iPhone in 2007, the PDAs’ end of life became inevitable.

VHS video recorders, overhead projectors and MP3s are fast becoming museum items as their production has ceased. They have been replaced by video cameras that store films on laserdiscs, laptop computers with PowerPoint software for presentations and smartphones that offere free music with a myriad of other applications.

Other familiar experiences are being killed by new technolgy. I regret the slow but sure demise of printed newspapers. The revenue that depended on classified adverts has dried up as more people resort to online advertising of goods and services.

Reading a printed newspaper gives a unique sensation that can never be experienced by following news on a multitude of online news sites. The same applies to printed books that are facing threats from digital books that one can read on a home computer of a Kindle device. 

Those who love travelling and the excitement of plotting a city tour on a printed map must surely be relieved by today’s online Global Positioning System (GPS) navigation facilities. Most new cars now come with a GPS installed and printed maps have become a collector’s item. Printed city street maps have also become a rarity in hotels much to the disappointment of those who consider map reading as an essential part of a holiday experience.

As time goes by, we continue to see profound changes in the way we manage our day-to-day lives. The red and blue telephone boxes have practically disappeared from our streets. The smartphone in everyone’s pocket is far more convenient than struggling to get a connection from one of these telephone boxes. Telephone landlines are also disappearing and are today used mainly for internet connections.

Other less glamorous but more critical changes have happened in medical technology. Medical imaging technology has made the disgnosis of diseases at an early stage that much easier. We will soon review some of these changes.

johncassarwhite@yahoo.com