This Technological Age

We are part of a generation which has grown up with ever-increasing dependence on technology. If our cell phones and DVD players were taken from us, we wouldn't know what to do with ourselves. An extreme view? Perhaps, but it does relate to how quickly we become comfortable with technological innovations.

Technology for all

Computerisation has brought us untold benefits in terms of automation, and access, through the web, to previously a undreamed-of wealth of knowledge at our fingertips. We can keep up with what is happening to friends and acquaintances anywhere in the world with the click of a mouse button. We can know all the details of the latest disaster (and even, occasionally, a report about something positive) within minutes of its occurrence. This technology is available to all, now at rock-bottom prices, and only the most socially-deprived or technophobic groups do not regularly avail themselves of it. It has long since reached the point where it is seen as an intrinsic part of our lives in the way that the telephone has been for most of the last hundred years or so.

Digital media

We take photographs with systems that no longer use film, opening up a degree of control over our snapping that was unimagined by most just twenty years ago. Entertainment and even education have been revolutionized by the ease with which we can access sound recordings and films at an extremely high quality. The CD and more recently the DVD and MP3 have made this possible. Even the offerings of yesteryear can be seen or heard at their best on modern media. Technology can even restore sound or pictures to a standard that would have been difficult to imagine at the time they were first produced.

All computer-related

Almost all of these examples of modern technological innovation are interconnected in the way that they relate to the development of the personal computer over the last few decades. The PC and its Mac and other equivalents have become enormously powerful tools which we can use to bring great benefits to all. (Of course, like any powerful tool, the computer can be, and often is, used for evil and malevolent purposes - but this is still, thankfully, a minority activity.)

Keeping it all going

As with all advancement, there is a cost in terms of ensuring the continued benefits of the systems which surround us in our homes and workplaces. In short, our fancy machines and their associated paraphernalia require regular maintenance. From time to time, digital files need to be cleaned out to ensure the efficient operation of our computers. System components require to be upgraded and ink-delivery contrivances replenished or replaced. Software designed to keep the systems running smoothly - or to defeat malicious programming designed to subvert them - has become as commonplace as the household vacuum cleaner.

One aim of this site, as it grows, is to survey the offerings of the industries which have grown up with the maintenance and improvement of our personal technological world in mind, as well as to outline and comment on the range of major technological products readily available to the average consumer.