What started with the telegraph continues today...

What an exciting time for those people who were living when the telegraph was invented. These people were so accustomed to everything taking much time to happen. The telegraph changed that for them. They were now introduced to a technology that could share information quickly. This was the start of our culture’s fascination with instant gratification. As technology progresses so does everyone’s need for it to be as close to instant as possible. The telegraph also seems to have started to foster our impatient tendencies. The newspapers of the day had to completely switch how they were writing in order to accommodate the new technology and the need for quick and important information. It began our impatience with irrelevant information. As if the people of that era did not have the time to read all of the fluff that was a part of the paper prior to the telegraph. I just think about how impatient with technology our culture has become. For example, dial-up internet was not fast enough, we had to have high speed internet and this still isn’t fast enough for some people. There are stove tops that promise to boil water in record time. These and other technologies are trying to improve themselves off of what the promises the telegraph presented.

Technology at the Over Museum

The items at the Over Museum were very fascinating. It is always humbling to see how people used to live. It gives me a much greater appreciation of how far we have come and how easy we have it. It also makes me wonder what from today’s world will be in a museum for those who come after us to look at in amazement. One item that really got me thinking was the old style lawn cutter. When I lived in Lincoln, Nebraska I moved into a house that had a lawn cutter very similar to the one sitting by the car at the Museum. I remember we would use it every once and a while just for the fun of it. It worked but it was a lot of work. I do not think we could have ever have done our whole yard and it was not a big yard. As I looked at this device at the museum I did have a new thought. Yes, lawn mowers have become much more effective and easier to use but at what cost? We are becoming more aware of our environmental footprint and using mowers that are propelled by gas is an additional way that we are adding to this footprint. It is a little thing but it just got me thinking about how some advancements are adding to problems.