How Technology Has Impacted Today’s Everyday Experience

You could say this summer has been one of enlightenment for me. Prior to the last couple of years, when I extensively traveled for business, I didn’t live in a bubble, so I was exposed to many of the changes we would find outside the protection of the bridges that connect us with the outside world. 

Of course, I’m not saying that our lives here on the island don’t tend to coddle us a little bit, but they will tend to do that if we don’t get out in the real world once in a while. So I’m happy to see some of my friends traveling with their significant others and their children.

One of my wonderful friends traveled throughout Italy this last summer, as well as visited some of the nearby Mediterranean nations. Their time allowed them to slip back to an era that certainly increased their appreciation for that time's magnificent art and architecture.

I’ve always enjoyed traveling, though, as well as chatting with fellow passengers from here and abroad. They would be stunned when I told them about my experiences and travels. After I thought about it, I came to realize their infatuation was with my business as well as theirs. 

During the last month or so, I’ve had the opportunity to think about just how quickly we’ve seen technology impact our everyday lives. When we purchased a new vehicle two years ago, its safety innovations truly amazed me, as the first car I owned was a 1959 four-door Studebaker Lark with a flat-head four-cylinder engine.

A great friend, Vern Johns, and I would travel up to the 1967 World’s Fair in Montreal, Canada, in my 1959 “Suzy Studebaker” in 1967 without a hitch. To this day, we have a great laugh when thinking about that trip. In fact, I don’t even think passports were required at that time, and our driver’s licenses were all that were needed, quite a change from the advances in security of today.

That has caused me to think back to my early days of business travels and how gentlemen and ladies would dress to travel, especially men who wore suits and ties. I mention this because of an incident at Honolulu International Airport after the shoe-bomber incident. This involved a gentleman who was easily in his early nineties, who I observed exhibiting serious arthritis in his hands. A young man working the security line required him to remove his tie shoes as part of the boarding inspection process. I recall the terrible time he had following those instructions. I stopped to assist him and just shook my head.

My discussions today are about how technology has impacted how we live and the changes we’ve seen. I found the proof of that last week as I emptied pockets of an old suit coat and found a hotel room key. Yes, a room key, not a key card, no one uses keys any longer, and that has saved the lodging industry a great deal of operating expenses.

The EZ-Pass has taken the place of the majority of toll attendants across the nation as it allows us to speed through without tossing coins into a basket or getting change from the “friendly” attendant in that tiny box that they sit in on Toll Roads across the nation.

Another relic of days gone by can be found in the disappearance of “pay phones” across the nation. Cell phones have taken the place of those as well as the landline in most homes across the landscape. Even fax machines have become a thing of the past as most people can now fax via the Internet.

The ATM machine has removed the need to go into the bank to cash a check to get a few dollars to carry around, although some friends of mind insist on carrying around cash rather than “debit card” in the place of cash.

Is the day of the encyclopedia salesman gone by the wayside and replaced by Google and the cellphone you carry around? Can Alexa answer your everyday inquiries as you make your morning coffee, and is the day of the folding newspaper gone and replaced by your tablet on the breakfast table?

Although cars are not quite driverless, they have introduced technology that should continue to assist drivers to become better at that task. Backup cameras, intelligent speed control and other safety features to help prevent parking lot incidents and avoid other accidents are helping us all become better drivers, whether we want to or not.

My old Studebaker is a relic of the past, the expensive hotel keys are gone, fumbling for change to go through a toll is no longer necessary. Answering your fifth graders geography question is as close as GOOGLE or Alexa. 

Forget to get to the bank before it closes? No worries, an ATM is easily accessible across the street. Want to watch a movie without going out tonight, no problem, you can stream it right onto your living room TV set.