We live in a truly amazing world. The period of 19th-21th centuries is time of technological revolution. There were thousands of inventions, which had been made within this time frame. In my opinion the most important and valuable ones are : Invention of Electricity; Transistor (by Bardeen, Brattain, Shockley ); First computer with integrated circuits made with Robert Dennard later on with The microprocessor invented by Faggin, Hoff and Mazor.(1971), The World Wide Web and Internet protocol created by Tim Berners-Lee, invention of Cell phones in 1979 and many others. It all started with the invention of electricity and bringing it to the public around 1920-1930s. From that point the whole world was changed dramatically. It didn’t affect only industrial part of the society but regular people as well including me personally. I can hardly imagine my life without electricity, in fact, no one can. All our life is directly connected with the usage of it: All electronic devices (phones, computers, tv) and many others. This invention is a revolution one, and I truly agree with it.
Second important invention which came out after the invention of electric light I think was the transistor. What is it? A transistor is a special semiconductor instrument that is used for amplification of signals and electrical power in electric circuits. It comprises of a specific semiconductor material and 3 terminals in order to connect to the electric circuit.
You would ask me why is it so important? It is a basis of all new electronic devices (cell phones, Computers, ipods, TV, Gaming stations and many others!) It is omnipresent. Transistors have many functions, they can be used as switched, amplifiers, capacitors. It is not possible to build a modern computer which will be fast and small without these little things.
The next invention, that turned everything upside down was a computer. The very first model was created by John W. Mauchly and J. Presper Eckert in Pennsylvania – ENIAC, which stands for Electrical Numerical Integrator and Calculator. Despite the fact that it was the first computing machine, it was huge! It used the old vacuum tubes, as a result the machinery required more than 167 square meters of space. Later on vacuum tubes were replaced by transistors. Which significantly reduced the size of electrical machines as well as increased the operating speed. This device is revolutionary. Nowadays, everyone has a computer at home including me. All spheres of life use computer technologies. It reduces the human factor mistake, increases the gain, reduces time consumption. Shortly after the computers became available for almost everyone, the Internet appeared. Another wonderful feature that came along with technological progress.
It all begun with the United Stated Department of Defense in 1960s with their aim to communicate between different computers all over US territory in case of any danger or nuclear attack, it was originally called the ARPANET. With time it appeared in labs and colleges, but it became available to the “public” only in the mid 90s with the help of Al Gore, and in the late 90s the interned made it to the homes of regular people. Later the Internet became common way of communication between people. Many social networks appeared such as Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, Instagram and so on. It really helps a lot in terms of communication and getting closer with friends and relatives when even thousands of miles separate you.
In addition, another revolutionary invention which stands for making communication easier appeared. It is a cellphone. First cell appeared in 1970s , since then it changed the world in a whole new way. Mobile phone is a device that was created for making calls whenever you want and wherever you are, almost without being connected by wires. Technology progress took the primary purpose of just calling far away from that. It is hard to believe that nowadays a smart phone can simply combine a lot of inseverable things of our daily life into small, user friendly mechanism such as camera, web surfing device, GPS, MP3 player and many others.
Overall, mobile phones have made an important contribution, They simplified and made our life much easier, they don’t let you sleep in in the morning, will remind you of everything important you need to do today, will bring you closer with your beloved ones, they have become our personal assistants, companions for life.
Finally, there are more than tens and hundreds of thousands of inventions that changed the world towards better side. But they all have some negative influence on us as well. Speaking of which the main concern of doctors and scientists is that People get too obsessed with Social networking, texting. They prefer this way of intercourse rather than regular one. And this is wrong.
Speaking of me I use internet, social networks as well as cellular a lot for different purposes: studying, gaining new information from the Web, chatting with friends on line and meeting new people as well. I do not get too obsessed with it. I can combine both: the use of technologies and regular communication as well. And this is my advice to everyone.
In the end I would like to say that technologies indeed have changed our life dramatically. Towards positive side as well as negative. It is only up to us, how to use these wonderful features that the future will prompt.
References
1300, c. <. (n.d.). 21st Century - Modern Inventions. Inventors. Retrieved May 26, 2013, from http://inventors.about.com/od/timelines/a/M
