Thanks to the good ole’ military industrial complex there was a technology boom during the Cold War. ENIAC was in use until the 60’s and computers became increasing digital. Then in the 70’s Arpanet was created to transfer information (probably about bombs) between important locations. In the mid 70’s digital computing really took off and I am not going to list off all of the innovations that were created. Computers got better and more available though and continued to improve through the 80’s and 90’s. Now we have the IPhone and I think we must have peaked back in 2015/14 because the IPhone 7 looks awful.

I hardly touched a computer until I was in the fourth grade and then it was only for typing lessons. Most people my age though had more experience with computers and even I never thought much about how exciting they must have been when they first became popular with the public. Thinking of the Internet as being something barebones is odd. I’m taken aback when Google only has four pages of search results; I can’t imagine there only being a couple hundred pages. The idea of Hypertext novels and HyperCard games is charming though. I definitely take the Internet for granted and things like that really give me insight into how excited people were to experience the freedom of the web.

Internet freedom is a tricky thing now though. Most scholarly information costs money to access and, even though the Internet is a great platform to share knowledge and interests, it has become restrictive.