Another reminder of technology running our lives....

[dazed&confused]

I am a sales manager. I have to drive to all sorts of customers and locations in 7 states. I rely on a GPS unit to guide me through my week. Today, it gave up the ghost. I took me all of ten minutes to get to Best Buy and get another one. I was totally lost without it. Got me to thinking, what devices or appliances do we all take for granted today that didn't exist thirty years ago? How long would it take you to replace your microwave oven if it quit tonight?

[my2cents]

My microwave went about and we went without one for about 2 weeks and it was a living hell. You never realize how much time and effort it saves you, not to mention all the pots and pans you have to wash. I got a new one at Wally World for $69.00, 1.1 cuft with rotating tray which is more than adequate for making popcorn and TV dinners.

[1987chieftains]

i would say cell phones. but, its not just a phone anymore.... you can get to the internet, gps, email, play music, videos, games, turn your light on or off at your house.... etc...
you guys ever watch i love the 70's, 80's, 90's? i love those shows. that stuff we had then looks so old and big. and we still played outside from sun up til sun down.

[kantuckyII]

First would be the cell phone with the MP3 player..then, the computer.

The latest greatest thing now that I can't imagine going back to being without is the DVR! I don't think that TV would be the same without it. I don't watch television that much but when I do, I can watch shows that I really enjoy. No longer do we have to watch something just because that is all that there is on. Don't have to miss a minute of a show because the phone rang. I tell people that don't have one...once they have it, they'll be baffled that everyone doesn't have one

[caglewis]

My 86-yr-old father died in 1999 saying, with heaping scorn and ridicule, that computers were only a passing "fad/gimmick", and he didn't know why anyone would want one because they were easily "broken into", very unreliable, and mostly didn't work.
I purchased my first computer at a 1999 Black Friday [Thanksgiving weekend] Walmart special price. With the help of a friend, I managed to get that collection of 3 big boxes loaded into my car, home, and unloaded as far as my living room floor where I left it sit unopened. On Sunday I drove up to Wilmington to a large extended family Thanksgiving gathering at a restuarant. Something someone else said triggered one of my father's diatribes against computers. Needless to say, I did not choose that moment to tell him I had just bought one and provoke additional arguement. He died suddenly the next day.
Over a decade later, even I can't believe how much I depend on/use this computer for routine everyday little things [shopping, paying bills, sending notes, looking up info]. And Daddy, if he was still here, would probably still be criticizing and ridiculing it.