The first personal computers were created in the 1970s for use in the home and for small businesses. They could run word processing, spreadsheets, and simple games.
Once they were seamlessly connected to the Internet, they suddenly became essential to many people’s lives as an essential memory prompt, research tool, personal assistant, and a creator of a virtual meeting place that is essential to the social life of some.
But what about those who aren’t very comfortable living through their computers? As with any fundamental technology, it will leave some people behind as it sweeps forward to change the human landscape. There will be a great deal of unanchored anger in the displaced. This ire may be directed at the tool that has fostered the change, or, much more detrimentally, it may simmer just below the surface, looking for an easy target.
Lest we mock those left behind, remember you might be the one “gripping a steel pipe” under the next tech revolution.
