I remember a particular scene from 1994’s “The Shawshank Redemption” with Morgan Freeman and Tim Robbins as the protagonists, in which an old man had just been released from prison after 50 years or so of lock up time. According to the movie’s timeline, the man had been incarcerated during the first decade of the 1900’s. So, when he came out, the world was completely different from how he had left it. He looked at cars as if they were monsters chasing him through the streets. People dressed in a different fashion, & with so many technological and cultural advantages had occurred, he felt threatened.
The point here is that within that 50 year period of time, cars became the major hit that completely revolutionized the world. It took half a century or less to boost into an entirely new era. Cell phones have achieved that in less than half the time. Am I exaggerating the timeline in this particular case? May be 15 years or 20 seem too much. But think about it. When cell phones began, people carried them around in small cases that looked just like professional camera equipment.
Today, your cell phone is the hover point of all your relationships in the world. Your friends, family & business partners call, text, post on your social networks, email you & you can check all of that out just by the press of an illustrated button on the touch screen.
Cell phones have changed the global lifestyle in so little time that the New York Times could only dare compare to the revolution automobiles imposed upon the world. http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/01/26/ripples-from-the-cellphones-splash/?partner=rss&emc=rss What will be next?