Technology Literacy Narrative Pre-writing Part 2

Thinking about the progression of technology in the last thirty years has revealed to me just how prominent technology has become in everyday life.  It seems hard to see without stopping to think about it, as we are so used to having our devices.  On the day I was born my parents were buying one of the "new" handheld calculators.  At that point technological devices were just tools, in the sense that they sat in a box or drawer and were used only when needed to perform some specific task. There was of course TV, radio and eventually VCRs and tape players, but again they only seemed to be something that was used at very specific times, they were not ubiquitous in the way things are now.  These days, everyone has so much computing power in their pockets that the calculator and even the telephone function are just a byproducts of a much more powerful device.  They have become so multi-functional that many people can find a constant use for them and no one is very far from a smartphone or PC anymore.  They have become so interconnected that the future we now live in has its importance in "the cloud."  I would not want to go back to the days where every electronic device was an isolated machine.  Access is the key factor of modern technology, whether it is being able to communicate with distant friends in a relatively short amount of time, or finding information quickly, or instantly finding media such as music or a movie-on-demand.  Everyone and everything is finding its way into this interconnected space, and this is why I always welcome the latest technology, as it is usually a step closer to better and more complete access.