You Made The O Into An A...So What?

My mind has been on technology a lot lately. Maybe it’s because Iron Man 2 is in the back of my mind constantly. Maybe it’s because I’m fascinated by the release of the iPad. Maybe it’s because my desktop computer is becoming obsolete.

Regardless of the reason, I’ve been noticing electronics and gadgets in a different light lately. I’ll see them and think of how they were invented or what the market or world was like at the time of their release. I’ve been pondering how technological advancement seems to progress in great leaps at a time.

We live by candle light and suddenly the light bulb is developed. We communicate by letter and then the radio is invented. As we huddle around the radio, the television is developed. The computer has revolutionized so many day to day processes. The internet, cell phones and mp3 players are things that didn’t exist when I grew up but my kids will probably not be able to fathom their lives without.

These were all groundbreaking inventions, but over the decades, many tweaks and improvements have been made upon them. These adjustments are a natural part of the process of invention. Every now and then, a truly original invention springs forth from a need to improve a useful invention. However, more often, these new features to an existing product should be attributed to the genius of the original product. Let me give an example.

High definition TV. Wow. Awesome. I’m on board. It is great and the picture is clear and I love it, but it’s still television. A thousand years from now, when people look back on the invention of the television, they will just say the television was invented and might mention that it was made better over the years.

Another example is the iPad. I’ve checked it out in the store and it seems really cool and makes technology really accessible. But is it really this new invention that should blow our minds as much as it does? To me, it looks like someone got sick of typing in the wrong letters on their tiny iPhone or iPod touch screens or said, “I can’t watch a decent movie on this tiny freaking screen,” and then said, “Wait a second, we should make it bigger!”

I thought of all this last night when I was at my grandmother’s house. I was in her kitchen and noticed the space saver clock radio hanging beneath her cabinet. These things were such a big deal when they came out. They seemed so revolutionary and high tech. Basically, somebody wanted more counter space and added a couple of brackets to the top of their old clock radio. I remember people being wowed by this when I was a kid, as I was. I looked at it last night and realized how simple it was and how ridiculous all the fuss was.

I think we, meaning the human race, want to give ourselves a little too much credit for what we’ve figured out sometimes. Not every new invention is a game-changer. The iPad is just a middle step between iPod and laptop. The Blu-Ray player is just a better quality movie. The Sham-Wow is pretty absorbent, but how often are you really going to use it? The Snuggie is not going to end world hunger. We wet our pants in excitement over such crap as if we’ve cured cancer, yet we had trouble figuring out the world wasn’t flat and still can’t figure out whether or not margarine is a healthier alternative to butter. Let’s face it, sometimes we, as a species, move forward in leaps and bounds and other times we trip over our mental shoelaces.

So, the next time a product is improved, just give it a thumbs up or thumbs down. We don’t need to run around talking about how amazing it is or how we can’t live without it. At some point, we’re going to stop caring about most of the things we were once ready to kill somebody to possess. They’ll become the 8-track or the pump up gym shoe or the Wacky Wall Walker. Let time be the judge.

We should take a deep breath and resist the urge to pat ourselves on the back so often. Not every new product represents a thrusting into a new era of technology or convenience. Sometimes it’s just a slightly better version of something that already exists and there’s nothing wrong with that. That’s progress too. Let’s be willing to embrace our mediocrity without trying to dress it up and tell each other it’s overachievement.