I’m just old enough to remember a time when colour TV was still a relative novelty and a luxury few could afford and not everyone even had a telephone.
Since then I’ve seen the arrival of Pong (and, later, Space Invaders, Pacman, etc.). digital calculators (instead of sliderules and log books), digital watches, audio cassettes (instead of reel-to-reel), VCRs, CDs, the Walkman, home computing, DVDs, microwave ovens, PCs, laptops, mobile phones, so many things I’ve probably forgotten more than I can remember and just take them for granted without recalling a time when they didn’t exist.
And they’ve all been definite boons in their way.
But I can’t help feeling (and have felt for at least the last twenty years) that … simultaneously … they’ve done us no good at all.
