It was 1992 when I bought my first computer. Up until then I had very little experience of screens and keyboards. The first holes in the wall, ATMs, started appearing in the late seventies, early eighties. I remember the bank kindly provided customers with a little map of where the cashpoints were. In the mid eighties, working at the BBC, there was one man in the office who used to input data using a keyboard and screen. None of us were clear what the difference between a computer programmer and data inputer was. We used to give the machine a wide berth when we walked suspiciously around it.
The picture above contains some of the devices in our house. I suppose the first to appear were the remotes that control the TV, DVD and cable TV. Then the computer keyboards and mice and finally the little apple remote which controls our Mac based music, photographs and videos.
Then there are the games controllers which belong to the new generation. I avoid the games machine.
How many people from thirty years ago would recognize any of these devices? What percentage of the worlds population would still be mystified by them? Will be using any of them in another thirty years?
Posts
